the Language of it, they would have spent their Time much better by a more proper Application of their refpective Talents, which have defervedly raised both their Characters, not only in their different Profeffions, but in the World of Letters. Mr. - writes me word he has a Letter by him from Count MAFFEI concerning VOLTAIRE'S, and HILL'S MEROPE, which I want much to fee. When you write next, pray tell me whether the little Group of Figures, I invented for you, is yet executed in baffo relievo

by our favourite Artist GossET. Adieu.

LETTER

I

LETTER VI.

To the SAME.

FIND, EUPHEMIUS, you do not thoroughly concur with me in a Remark I made in my last Letter, that " ADDISON

was an indifferent Critic, and a worse "Poet." But however extenfive my Regard to the Memory of that great and good Man may be, and however inimitable and certainly justly admired he ever will be as a Prose Writer, for those moral and humorous Effays, but more particularly thofe delightful Allegories his Muse CLIO has left us; yet true Criticism will never allow him to be at the Head even of the fecond Clafs of our English Poets. You answer, that there are several Paffages in fome of his poetical Compofitions, which breathe a Spirit of Genius equal to any thing extant, either among the Moderns or Ancients; and at the fame time, point out the famous Simile of the Angel of Destruction, if I may fo call it, in the Campaign and another at the Conclufion

clufion of the first Act of Cato. Now tho'

felecting particular Paffages from a Poet is not a certain Method, nor a fair one, of forming a proper Estimate of his general Excellence, yet as you fo ftrongly urge these two, with an Air of Triumph, to be the Inspiration of Caftalian Streams, I muft defire you to examine them with me critically Line by Line, and I dare fay you'll own, that both betray a great Poverty of Imagination by an infipid Repetition of one Thought in different Expreffions. To begin then with the celebrated Simile in the Campaign, which, for half a Century, has been undistinguishingly admired.

"So when an Angel by Divine Command "With rifing Tempefts shakes a guilty Land, "Such as of late o'er pale BRITANNIA paff, "Calm and ferene he guides the furious Blaft, "And pleas'd th' ALMIGHTY's Orders to perform, "Rides in the Whirlwind and directs the Storm." Now take the fecond Line of each Couplet, and examine whether the Thought is varied. Is not shaking a guilty Land with a rifing Tempeft, and directing the Storm, and guiding the furious Blaft, the

1

fame Action? Is not acting by Divine Com-
mand, in the first Verse, and performing
the Almighty's Orders, in the fifth, the
fame Thought likewife? MARCIA'S Si-
mile in CATo abounds ftill more with this
tirefome Tautology.

"So the pure limpid Stream when foul with Stains
"Of rufhing Torrents, and descending Rains,
"Works itself clear, and as it runs refines."

CATO, A&t. I.

Rushing Torrents, and defcending Rains, works itself clear, and as it runs refines. But now having had the disagreeable Office of denying, for the fake of Truth, this excellent Man a Right to a Pretenfion of being a good Poet, Juftice will exact, and my own Inclination lead me to take notice, that his Tranflations of OVID are as faithful and fpirited, and at the same time carry as much the free unfettered Air of Originals, as any other Tranflations in the English Language. As I have particularized his Defects as a Poet, give me leave to take the more pleasureable Part now to point out Inftances of his Capacity as a Tranflator, which I will felect from

the Stories of NARCISSUS and ECHO, in the third Book; and of SALMACIS and HERMAPHRODITUS, in the fourth Book of the METAMORPHOSIS. The following Description receives the fame additional Beauty from the Tranflation, as the Youth's Image did from the furrounding Waters.

"Now all undreft upon the Banks he stood,
"And clapt his Sides, and leapt into the Flood:
"His lovely Limbs the Silver Waves divide,
"His Limbs appear more lovely thro' the Tide,
"As Lilies fhut within a cryftal Cafe,
"Receive a gloffy Luftre from the Glass *."

SALM. & HERM. Book iv.

The following Paffages likewife among others receive the fame Advantage.

many

[Shame, "The Boy knew nought of Love, and touch'd with "He ftrove and blush'd, but ftill the Blush became ; "In rifing Blushes ftill fresh Beauties rose; "The funny Side of Fruit fuch Blushes fhews,

*Ille, cavis velox applaufo corpore palmis, Defilit in latices: alternaque brachia ducens In liquidis tranflucet aquis: ut eburnea fi quis Signa tegat claro, vel candida lilia vitro.

D 2

And

METAM. Lib. iv.