external goods are so far from being the proper rewards of virtue, that they are very often inconfiftent with, and destructive to it. What nothing earthly gives, or can destroy, To prove that these can make no man nappy without virtue, he has confidered the effect of riches, honours, nobility, greatness, fame, superior talents, &c. and given pictures of human infelicity in men possess'd of them all; whence he concludes, that virtue only constitutes happiness, whose object is universal, and whose prospect eternal; and that the perfection of virtue and happiness consists in a due conformity to the order of providence here, and a resignation to it here and hereafter. We have dwelt long enough, perhaps too long, on this poem; but it was necessary to give the whole scope and design of the poet; that the reader might fee what art was required to make a subject so dry and metaphyfical, instructive and pleasing: and that it is fo will appear by the extracts we have taken, which we hope will induce our readers to peruse attentively the poem itself. From the nature of his plan, the reader will fee that the poet was deprived of many embellishments which other subjects will admit of, and tied down as it were to a chain of argument, which would allow of no digressions, studied fimiles and descriptions, or allusions to ancient fables; the want of which he has supplied, however, with feasonable remarks, and moral reflections; all of them just, and many of them truly fublime. A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod; The learned editor of the author's works informs us that this poem is only a part of what the poet intended on the subject, and that the whole would have made four books, of which this was to have been the first; but the author's bad state of health, and some other confiderations induced him to lay the plan afside: a remnant, however, of what he intended as a subsequent part of this was published under the title of Moral Epistles, which are in number four. The first treats of the knowledge and characters of men; the second, of the characters of women; and the two last, of the use of riches; and from the masterly manner in which these are executed the world has great reason to lament the loss of the rest. We come now to speak of those preceptive poems that concern our philosophical speculations; and these, tho' the subject is so pregnant with matter, affords such a field for fancy, and is so capable of every decoration, are but few. Lucretius is the most confiderable among the ancients who has written in this manner; and among the moderns I know of none but small detached pieces, except the poem called Anti-Lucretius, which has not yet received an English dress, and Dr. Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination; both which are worthy of our admiration. Some of the small pieces are also well executed; and there is one entitled the Universe, written by Mr. Baker, from which I shall borrow an example. The author's scheme is in some measure coincident with Mr. Pope's, so far especially as it tends to restrain the pride of man, with which design it was professedly written. It may be objected, perhaps, that this poem is not preceptive, and therefore not suitable to our purpose; but it is to be considered, that if it is not preceptive, it is didactic; if it does not teach by precept, it does by description; and therefore we hope to be allowed the liberty we are about to take. The passage we have selected is that respecting the planetary system, which is, in our opinion very beautiful. Unwife! and thoughtless! impotent! and blind ! Observe how regular the PLANETS run, First MERCURY, amidst full tides of light, Fair Venus, next, fulfils her larger round, More distant still, our EARTH comes rolling on, Nor nearer does he wind, nor farther stray, More yet remote from day's all-cheering source, Farthest and last, scarce warm'd by Phabus' ray, Who there inhabit must have other pow'rs, Strange and amazing must the diff'rence be, Ye fons of men! with fatisfaction know, At his command, affrighting human-kind, COMETS drag on their blazing lengths behind : Nor, as we think, do they at random rove, But, in determin'd times, through long ellipfes move. } And tho' sometimes they near approach the fun, We are now to speak of those preceptive poems that treat of the business and pleasures of mankind; and here Virgil claims our first and principal attention, who in his Georgics has laid down the rules of husbandry in all its branches with the utmost exactness and perfpicuity, and at the fame time embellished them with all the beauties and graces of poetry. Tho' his subject was husbandry, he has delivered his precepts, as an ingenious author observes, not with the simplicity of a ploughman, but with the address of a poet. The meanest of his rules are laid down with a kind of grandeur, and he breaks the clods, and toffes about the dung with an air of gracefulness*. Of the different ways of conveying the fame truth to the mind, he takes that which is pleasantest; and this chiefly diftinguishes poetry from prose, and renders Virgil's rules of husbandry more. delightful and valuable than any other. These poems which are esteemed the most perfect of the author's works are, perhaps, the best that can be proposed for the young students imitation in this manner of writing; for the whole of his Georgics is wrought up with wonderful art, and decorated with all the flowers of poetry. In the first of the four books, he proposes the general design of each Georgic, and after a folemn invocation of all the heathen deities, who are supposed to be any ways concerned in rural affairs, he addresses himself particularly to Augustus Cæfar, whom he compliments with Divinity: then falling in with his subject, he speaks of the different kinds of tillage, that are suitable to different foils; traces out the origin of agriculture; presents us with a catalogue of the implements of husbandry, and points out the business peculiar to each season. He next describes the changes of the weather, and the signs in the heavens and the earth, by which the approaching change may be foretold; and in compliment to Auguftus, introduces some prodigies which are said to have pre* Mr. Addison. I 3 |