patron. Men of the greateft genius are fometimes lazy, and want a fpur; often modeft, and dare not venture in publick; they certainly know their faults in the worst things; and even their beft things they are not fond of, becaufe the idea of what they ought to be is far above what they are. This induced me to believe that Virgil defired his works might be burnt, had not the fame Auguftus, that defired him to write them, preferved them from destruction. A scribbling beau may imagine a Poet may be induced to write, by the very pleasure he finds in writing; but that is feldom, when people are neceffitated to it. I have known men row, and ufe very hard labour, for dis verfion, which if they had been tied to, they would have thought themfelves very unhappy.

But to return to Blenheim, that work fo much admired by fome, and cenfured by others. I have often wifhed he had wrote it in Latin, that he might be out of the reach of the empty critick, who could have as little understood his meaning in that language as they do his beauties in his own.

Falfe criticks have been the plague of all ages; Milton himself, in a very polite court, has been compared to the rumbling of a wheel-barrow: he had been on the wrong fide, and therefore could not be a good poet. And this, perhaps, may be Mr. Philips's cafe.

But I take generally the ignorance of his readers. to be the occafion of their dislike. People that have formed their tafte upon the French writers can have no relith for Philips; they admire points and turns, and confequently have no judgement of what is great and majeftick he must look little in their eyes, when he

foars

I

foars fo high as to be almoft out of their view. I cannot therefore allow any admirer of the French to be a judge of Blenheim, nor any who takes Bouhours for a complete critick. He generally judges of the ancients by the moderns, and not the moderns by the ancients; he takes thofe paffages of their own authors to be really sublime which come the nearest to it; he often calls that a noble and a great thought which is only a pretty and a fine one: and has more inftances of the fublime out of Ovid de Triftibus,. than he has out of all Virgil.

I shall allow, therefore, only those to be judges of Philips, who make the ancients, and particularly Virgil, their standard.

But, before I enter on this subject, I fhall confider what is particular in the style of Philips, and examine what ought to be the ftyle of heroick poetry; and next inquire how far he is come up to that style.

His ftyle is particular, because he lays afide rhyme, and writes in blank verse, and ufes old words, and frequently poftpones the adjective to the fubftantive, and the fubftantive to the verb; and leaves out little particles, a, and the; her, and his; and ufes frequent appofitions. Now let us examine, whether thefe alterations of ftyle be conformable to the true fublime.

WAL SH.

WILLIAM WALSH, the fon of Jofeph Walsh,. Efq. of Abberley in Worcestershire, was born in 1663, as appears from the account of Wood, who relates, that at the age of fifteen he became, in 1678, a gentleman commoner of Wadham College.

He left the univerfity without a degree, and purfued his ftudies in London and at home; that he ftudied, in whatever place, is apparent from the effect, for he became, in Mr. Dryden's opinion, the beft critick in the nation.

He was not, however, merely a critick or a scholar, but a man of fashion, and, as Dennis remarks, oftentatioufly fplendid in his drefs. He was likewife a member of parliament and a courtier, knight of the fhire for his native county in several parliaments; in another the reprefentative of Richmond in Yorkfhire; and gentleman of the horse to Queen Anne, under the Duke of Somerfet.

Some of his verfes fhew him to have been a zealous friend to the Revolution; but his political ardour did not abate his reverence or kindnefs for

Dryden,

Dryden, to whom he gave a Differtation on Virgil's Paftorals, in which, however ftudied, he difcovers fome ignorance of the laws of French verfification.

In 1705, he began to correfpond with Mr. Pope, in whom he difcovered very early the power of poetry. Their letters are written upon the pastoral comedy of the Italians, and those paftorals which Pope was then preparing to publifh.

The kindneffes which are firft experienced are feldom forgotten. Pope always retained a grateful memory of Walsh's notice, and mentioned him in one of his latter pieces among thofe that had encouraged his juvenile ftudies.

-Granville the polite,

And knowing Walsh, would tell me I could write.

In his Effay on Criticifm he had given him more fplendid praife; and, in the opinion of his learned commentator, facrificed a little of his judgement to his gratitude.

The time of his death I have not learned. It must have happened between 1707, when he wrote to Pope; and 1711, when Pope praifed him in his Effay. The epitaph makes him forty-fix years old: if Wood's account be right, he died in 1709.

He is known more by his familiarity with greater men, than by any thing done or written by himfelf.

His works are not numerous. In profe he wrote Eugenia, a Defence of Women; which Dryden honoured with a Preface.

Efculapius, or the Hofpital of Fools, published after his death.

A Col

A Colle&ion of Letters and Poems, amorous and gal lant, was published in the volumes called Dryden's Mifcellany, and fome other occafional pieces.

To his Poems and Letters is prefixed a very judicious preface upon Epiftolary Compofition and Amorous Poetry.

In his Golden Age reftored, there was fomething of humour, while the facts were recent; but it now ftrikes no longer. In his imitation of Horace, the first stanzas are happily turned; and in all his writings there are pleafing paffages. He has, however, more elegance than vigour, and feldom rifes higher than to be pretty.

DRY