No ftreams as amber fmooth, as amber clear,
Were feen to glide, or heard to warble there :
Rebellion's fpring, which through the country ran,
Furnish'd with bitter draughts the fteady clan.
No lowers embalm'd the air, but one white rofe
Which on the tenth of June by instinct blows;
By inftinct blows at morn, and, when the shades
Of drizzly eve prevails, by inftinct fades.

Here is a great power of verfification displayed, and a fine talent for description; the circumftances are indeed many of them outré and beyond nature; but Mr. Churchill had no fears of being too fevere; the defcription of Famine is of the fame ftamp, and worked up to a dreadful pitch of horrid wretchedness. The dialogue between Jockey and Sawney is very humourous.

2. Devouring War imprifon'd in the north, Shall at our call in horrid pomp break forth, And when his chariot-wheels with thunder hung, Fell Difcord braying with her brazen tongue,

Death

Death in the van, with Anger, Hate, and Fear,
And Defolation ftalking in the rear,

Revenge, by Justice guided, in his train,
He drives impetuous o'er the trembling plain,
Shall at our bidding quit his lawful prey,
And to meek, gentle, gen'rous Peace give way.

Thefe lines I think are the finest in the poem; they contain a noble spirit of poetry, the imagery is truly fublime, the whole fpeech of Famine is extremely poetical. The quotations I have made from this gentleman's fatires plainly evince his great talents for that species of poetry: happy for him, were they directed to better themes.

VOL II. PART II. I

SECT.

SECT. II.

Of ELEGIAC POETRY.

HE Latin elegiac writers are too

Twell known to need a particular

criticism but furely Quintilian's opinion has more reafon in it, than that of twenty fuch critics as Rapin. He prefers Tibullus to all the elegiac writers. The tender foftness of his verfes far exceed any thing in Ovid, Propertius, or Gallus. Propertius was a fuccefsful imitator of the Greeks: he far furpaffed Tibullus in learning, but not in that tender elegance so pleasing in the elegy.* Ovid is a natural,

*Horace juftly obferves, that plaintive ftrains are not the only subjects for humble elegy, but also love and fuccefsful defires.

Verfibus

tural, moving, and paffionate writer. The eighth elegy of the fecond book Ponticorum, excels in the pathetic, and the variety of the wit and elegance. The compliment he paid to himself is well known.

Tantum fe nobis elegi debere fatentur,
Quantum Virgilio nobile dabit epos.

But the lafcivioufnefs of Ovid's writings render many of his pieces difgufting to chafte ears.

Modern times have produced fome elegiac writers but little inferior to those of antiquity; and none more defervedly famous than the celebrated Lotichius, a German.

I 2

Verfibus impariter junctis querimonia primum,
Post etiam inclufa eft voti fententia compos.
Quis tamen exiguos elegos emiferit auctor,
Grammatici certant, & adhuc fub judice lis est.

De Art, Poet. ver. 75.

German. This fine genius was the au thor of four books of elegies, three of odes, and two of eclogues; but his elegies are the best of his compofitions. He excels extremely in the pathetic, and fome pieces are truly fublime: nothing can exceed his elegy on the taking of Magdeburg, and thofe on the nativity of our Saviour and the Holy Ghost. There were fome remarkable incidents in the life of this poet that deferve remembrance. He began his life in the character of a foldier; but foon quitted it, to purfue his ftudies with more ease. Going the grand tour, he met with feveral narrow escapes in France; at Roan he was near being drowned, by the villainy of two watermen; at Narbonne he was going to be condemned to death for being found in company with a Spanish fpy, to whom he was unknown; and at Montpelier