consists in opening a subject by degrees; in presenting it, first, in few and simple terms, and then enlarging and brightening it by a more distinct and exquisite expression, till the description becomes, as it were, full-blown, and is set before us in all its grace and beauty. It is remarkable that Mr. Addison's studious imitation of Virgil's manner hurt his English poetry sometimes, though it always improved his English prose. The reason was, he had no facility in rhyming, and so was obliged many times to take up with a weaker word or phrase than its place in his verse required; hence the frequent redundancies in his rhymed poetry, which were intended by him as amplifications. In his prose he was under no such restraint; and his exact taste always led him to perfection. That this observation is just we may see from his Cato, where the freedom of blank verse, as it is called, secures him from this mischance; and from these Latin poems, in which the Virgilian gradation is everywhere observed, and nicely imitated." It only remains to be said, that these poems were written when he was very young. He was only twenty-five at the publication of that on the Peace of Riswick, perhaps nearly the last which he wrote. And to show how very early he excelled in this kind of composition, his biographer informs us, that in his seventeenth year the accidental perusal of some of his Latin verses gained him the patronage of Dr. Lancaster, afterwards provost of Queen's, by whose recommendation he was elected to a demyship in Magdalen college, Oxford. HONORATISSIMO VIRO CAROLO MONTAGU, ARMIGERO, SCACCHARII CANCELLARIO, ERARII PRÆFECTO, REGI A SECRETIORIBUS CONSILIIS, ETC. CUM tanta auribus tuis obstrepat vatum nequissimorum turba, nihil est cur queraris aliquid inusitatum tibi contigisse, ubi præclarum hoc argumentum meis etiam numeris violatum conspexeris. Quantum virtute bellica præstent Britanni, recens ex rebus gestis testatur gloria; quam vero in humanioribus pacis studiis non emineamus, indicio sunt quos nuper in lucem emisimus versiculi. Quod si Congrevius ille tuus divino, quo solet, furore correptus materiam hanc non exornasset, vix tanti esset ipsa pax, ut illa lætaremur tot perditissimis poetis tam misere decantata. At, dum alios insector, mei ipsius oblitus fuisse videor, qui haud minores forsan ex Latinis tibi molestias allaturus sum, quam quas illi ex vernaculis suis carminibus attulerunt; nisi quod inter ipsos cruciatus lenimentum aliquod dolori tribuat tormenti varietas. Nec quidem unquam adduci possem, ut poema patrio sermone conscriptum oculis tuis subjicerem, qui ab istis conatibus cæteros omnes scribendo non minus deterres, quam favendo excitaveris. Humanitatis tuæ Cultor devotissimus, JOSEPHUS ADDISON. POEMATA. PAX GULIELMI AUSPICIIS EUROPÆ REDDITA, 1697. POSTQUAM ingens clamorque virum, strepitusque tubarum, Atque omnis belli cecidit fragor; aspice, Cæsar, Quæ tibi soliciti, turba importuna, poetæ Munera deducunt: generosa a pectore flammæ, Oppida, et eversos flammarum turbine muros ! 1 Vexillum intrepidus 1 fixit, cui tempora dudum Hic pestem occultam, et fœcundas sulphure moles Sic, postquam Enceladi dejecit fulmine fratres 1 Honoratissimus D. Dominus Cutts. Baro de Gowran, etc. |