may be faid of the third, and much greater part of this work, which, he calls, A Collec-. tion of the most natural and fublime Thoughts in the best English Poets, that, though it is in general a better collection than had appeared before, a great part of it does not confift of the thoughts of English, but of the Greek and Roman poets translations in every body's hands. Befides which, whole topicks contain only trite fabulous descriptions, extracted from the mythology of the ancients, which are still more abundant in the larger collections he afterwards published of the fame kind. Things of that nature may be proper to teach youth what is called learning at school; but the maxims, fentiments, and reflections beft adapted to form the manners, direct the conduct, and enlarge the minds of men, though they could not entirely escape our author's plan, are far from being the principal objects of it. And, indeed, the manners and fentiments of his readers are not properly the objects of his research, but their improvement in the art he pretends to teach; which makes him folely intent on flights of imagination, flowing numbers, eafy diction, and happinefs of colouring. Hence, when he fays our beft English poets, he means only the modern; for, fays he,

"The British Parnaffus, 4 vol. 12mo.

Though

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Though Spenfer, and fome other of the ancients, have not been excelled, nor, perhaps, • equalled by their fucceffors, in juftness of defcription,or propriety and greatness of thought; yet their language is now become fo obsolete, that most readers, of our age, have no ear for them: And therefore Shakespear himfelf is fo rarely cited in this collection.' This is but an indifferent compliment to the readers of our age, and feems, in making them facrifice dignity of wit, and energy of fenfe to found and colour, to be placing them upon a level with some of our modern fine ladies, who eftimate their admirers by their drefs and equipage, and not their merit and understanding.

Mr. Gildon thought his predeceffor's defects fufficient reafons for attempting to give us a more exalted taste of our poets in a piece, which he calls, * THE COMPLEAT ART OF POETRY; and, indeed, if I may be allowed to play upon a word, it is but a taste, and much too fmall an one to answer the title he gives it. His whole work is comprized in two fmall volumes, of which one confifts almost entirely of critical difcourfes on the feveral fpecies of poetry, and rules for compofing them. The reft is a collection of paffages from poets, in which he tells us, as his ends were dif ferent

* 2 Vol. 12240, 1718.

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ferent, he has purfued a different method from the preceding author, whofe view. was only to teach the ftructure of the feveral kinds of verfe, and to give a catalogue of rhymes, poetical figures, epithets, and fynonymous words and phrafes. But • the defign of my collection, fays he, is to give the reader the great images that are to be found in our poets, who are truly great, as well as their topicks and moral eflections. Wherefore he informs us, he has been pretty large in his citations from Spenfer, whom the other has rejected; and feems to think that he has gone through Shakespear, that the fame author almoft entirely excludes. Accordingly, at the end of his first volume, he gives us a collection, which he calls Shakefperiana, but it confifts of less than fixty pages; though, to have extracted only a part of the fublime images and fentiments of that divine and incomparable poet, would have filled a much larger volume than one, or perhaps both, of Mr. Gildon's. He owns, he might have been much more extenfive; but thinks what he has cited, fufficiently demonstrates the bad judgment of those who reject Shakespear for his obfolete language. In the other volume, which is an alphabetical extract, Spenser's images are introduced with fome extent. The reft of it is but a flight

flight collection, confifting of odd and particular topicks, often with only one or two paffages in them, and but few of the mo ral reflections he promised. What is worst, he often repeats Byshe's quotations, and gives us few heads, or authors of confequence (except the two we have mentioned) which had escaped that compiler. And, indeed, he was not very extenfively read in our poets, had not a fufficient number of them ancient or modern, and was not induftrious enough in extracting from those he had; which, perhaps, might proceed in fome measure from the limits prescribed to his work. Whatever fuccefs this book may have had we cannot fay; but there has fince appeared two collections of the fame kind, which, as the compilers of them have thought fit to conceal their names, we shall leave to the judgment of the publick.

From this view of the authors who have collected the thoughts of our poets under heads, it evidently appears, that their works. have generally been very imperfect and defective; and, at the fame time, that a far greater number, of no lefs merit, have been wholly neglected, either through want of judgment, or defign. Hence we have long wanted a compiler, or reader-general for mankind, to digeft whatever was most exquifite (the flowers) in our poets, into the

moft

moft commodious method for use and application; a perfon, void of all prejudice, who would take no author's character upon truft, but would deliberately review fuch of our poets as had feemed to expire in fame, rather through length of time, and the variation of our language, than want of merit; one, who had not only intelligence to know what compofitions of value our country had produced, but leifure, patience and attention to go through a vaft diversity of reading; with judgment to difcern peculiar beauties amidst the obscurity of antiquated modes of fpeech, and the great fuperfluity of matter that furrounds them, like stars in winter nights, with gloom and void: In fine, fagacity to discover the grofs and innumerable errors of the prefs; fidelity, not to obtrude the officious alterations of an editor, under the pretence of restoreing the sense of an author; and capacity, to dispose a great variety of felect readings under their proper heads: All which attributes, as they rarely meet in the fame perfon, feem to account for our not having had one collection of this kind of any great merit and utility.

It is, however, by the idea of thefe qualifications, the compiler of this work hath endeavoured to conduct himself. How well he has fucceeded, will appear from the following