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Scaliger, Voltaire, and Grotius, were but eighteen years old when they produced, the two firft their Edipufes, and the laft his Adamus Exul. But the moft extraordinary inftance of early excellence is The Old Batchelor of Congreve, written at nineteen only; as comedy implies and requires a knowledge of life and characters, which are here difplayed with accuracy and truth. Mr. Spence informed me that Pope once said to him, “I wrote things, I am afhamed to say how foon; part of my epic poem Alcander when about twelve. The scene of it lay in Rhodes, and some of the neighbouring islands; and the poem opened under the water, with a defcription of the court of Neptune; that couplet on the circulation of the blood, which I afterwards inferted in the Dunciad,

As man's mæanders, to the vital spring

Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring,

was originally in this poem, word for word." After he had burnt this very early compofition, Atterbury told him, he much wished fome parts of it, as a fpecimen, had been more carefully preferved.

Quintilian, whofe knowledge of human nature was confummate, has obferved, that nothing quite correct and faultlefs is to be expected in very early years, from a truly elevated genius: that a generous extravagance and exuberance are its proper marks, and that a premature exactness is a certain evidence of future flatness and fterility. His words are incomparable, and worthy confideration. "Audeat hæc ætas plura, et inveniat, et inventis gaudeat, fint licet illa non fatis interim ficca et fevera. Facile remedium eft ubertatis, fterilia nullo labore vincuntur. Illa mihi in pueris natura nimium fpei dabit, in quâ ingenium judicio præfumitur.-Materiam effe primum volo vel abundantiorem, atque ultra quam oportet fufam. Multum inde decoquant anni, multum ratio limabit, aliquid velut ufu ipfo deteretur, fit modo unde excidi poffit & quod exculpi:-erit autem, fi non ab initio tenuem laminam duxerimus, et quam cælatura altior rumpat.Quare mihi ne maturitas quidem ipfa feftinet, nec musta in lacu ftatim austera fint; fic et annos ferent, et veftuftate proficient." This is very ftrong and mafculine fenfe, expreffed and enlivened by a train of metaphors, all of them elegant, and well preserved. Whether thefe early productions of Pope, would not have appeared

to

to Quintilian to be rather too finished, correct, and pure, and what he would have inferred concerning them, is too delicate a subject for me to enlarge upon. Let me rather add an entertaining anecdote. When Guido and Dominichino had each of them painted a picture in the church of Saint Andrew, Annibal Carrache, their mafter, was preffed to declare which of his two pupils had excelled. The picture of Guido reprefented Saint Andrew on his knees before the crofs; that of Dominichino reprefented the flagellation of the fame Apoftle. Both of them in their different kinds were capital pieces, and were painted in fresco, oppofite each other, to eternize, as it were, their rivalship and contention. "Guido (faid Carrache) has performed as a mafter, and Dominichino as a scholar. But (added he) the work of the scholar is more valuable than that of the mafter. In truth, one may perceive faults in the picture of Dominichino that Guido has avoided, but then there are noble ftrokes, not to be found in that of his rival." It was easy to discern a genius that promised to produce beauties, to which the sweet, the gentle, and the graceful Guido would never aspire,

The first sketches of fuch an artist ought highly to be prized. Different geniuses unfold themselves at different periods of life, In fome minds the one is a long time in ripening. Not only inclination, but opportunity and encouragement, a proper subject, or a proper patron, influence the exertion or the fuppreffion of genius. These ftanzas on Solitude are a ftrong instance of that contemplation and moral turn, which was the distinguishing characteristic of our Poet's mind. An ode of Cowley, which he produced at the age of thirteen years, is of the fame caft, and perhaps not in the least inferior to this of Pope. The voluminous Lopez de Vega is commonly, but perhaps incredibly, reported by the Spaniards to have compofed verfes when he was five years old; and Torquato Taffo, the fecond or third of the Italian poets, for that wonderful original Dante is the firft, is faid to have recited poems and orations of his own writing, when he was feven. It is however certain, which is more extraordinary, that he produced his Rinaldo in his eighteenth year, no bad precurfor to the Gerufalemma Liberata, and no small effort of that genius, which was in due time to fhew, how fine an epic poem the Italian language, notwithstanding the vulgar imputation of effeminacy, was capable of fupporting.

THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL.

ODE.

I.

ITAL spark of heav'nly flame!

VITAL

Quit, oh quit this mortal frame:
Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying;

Oh the pain, the blifs of dying!
Ceafe, fond Nature, cease thy ftrife,
And let me languish into life.

II.

Hark! they whisper; Angels fay,
Sifter Spirit, come away.

What is this abforbs me quite?

Steals my fenfes, fhuts my fight,

Drowns my fpirits, draws my breath?
Tell me, my Soul, can this be death?

III.

The world recedes; it difappears!
Heav'n opens on my eyes! my ears
With founds feraphic ring:

Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
O Grave! where is thy Victory?

O Death! where is thy Sting?

This Ode was written, we find, at the defire of Steele; and our Poet, in a letter to him on that occafion, fays,-" You have it, as Cowley calls it, just warm from the brain; it came to me the first moment I waked this morning; yet you'll fee, it was not fo absolutely inspiration, but that I had in my head, not only the verfes of Hadrian, but the fine fragment of Sappho."

It is poffible, however, that our Author might have had another compofition in his head, befides those he here refers to: for there is a close and surprising resemblance between this ode of Pope, and one of an obfcure and forgotten rhymer of the age of Charles the Second, namely Thomas Flatman; from whofe dunghill, as well as from the dregs of Crashaw, of Carew, of Herbert, and others, (for it is well known he was a great reader of all those poets), Pope has very judiciously collected gold. And the following ftanza is, perhaps, the only valuable one Flatman has produced.

When on my fick bed I languish;
Full of forrow, full of anguish,
Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying,
Panting, groaning, fpeechlefs, dying;
Methinks I hear fome gentle spirit say,
Be not fearful, come away!

The third and fourth lines are eminently good and pathetic, and the climax well preserved, the very turn of them is closely copied by Pope; as is likewise the striking circumstance of the dying man's imagining he hears a voice calling him away.

Vital spark of heavenly flame

Quit, O quit, this mortal frame;
Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying,

O the pain, the bliss of dying!
Hark! they whisper! angels fay,
Sifter fpirit come away!

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