Sometimes he indulges himself in a digreffion, always conceived with his natural exuberance, and commonly, even where it is not long, continued till it is tedious:

I' th' library a few choice authors ftood,

Yet 'twas well ftor'd, for that fmall ftore was good;
Writing, man's fpiritual phyfick, was not then
Itfelf, as now, grown a difeafe of men.
Learning (young virgin) but few fuitors knew;
The common prostitute fhe lately grew,

And with the fpurious brood loads now the prefs;
Laborious effects of idleness.

As the Davideis affords only four books, though intended to confift of twelve, there is no opportunity for fuch criticifm as Epick poems commonly supply. The plan of the whole work is very imperfectly fhewn by the third part. The duration of an unfinished action cannot be known. Of characters either not yet introduced, or fhewn but upon few occafions, the full extent and the nice difcriminations cannot be ascertained. The fable is plainly implex, formed rather from the Odyffey than the Iliad: and many artifices of diverfification are employed, with the fkill of a man acquainted with the best models. The paft is recalled by narration, and the future anticipated by vifion but he has been fo lavifh of his poetical art, that it is difficult to imagine how he could fill eight books more without practifing again the fame modes of difpofing his matter; and perhaps the perception of this growing incumbrance inclined him to ftop. By this abruption, pofterity loft more inftruction than delight. If the continuation of the Davideis can be miffed,

it is for the learning that had been diffused over it, and the notes in which it had been explained.

Had not his characters been depraved like every other part by improper decorations, they would have deserved uncommon praife. He gives Saul both the body and mind of a hero:

His way once chose, he forward thrust outright,
Nor turn'd afide for danger or delight.

And the different beauties of the lofty Merah and the gentle Michol are very juftly conceived and ftrongly painted.

Rymer has declared the Davideis fuperior to the Jerufalem of Taffo, "which," fays he, "the poet, "with all his care, has not totally purged from "pedantry." If by pedantry is meant that minute knowledge which is derived from particular fciences and studies, in oppofition to the general notions fupplied by a wide furvey of life and nature, Cowley certainly errs, by introducing pedantry, far more frequently than Taffo. I know not, indeed, why they fhould be compared; for the refemblance of Cowley's work to Taffo's is only that they both exhibit the agency of celeftial and infernal spirits, in which however they differ widely; for Cowley fuppofes them commonly to operate upon the mind by suggestion; Taffo reprefents them as promoting or obstructing events by external agency.

Of particular paffages that can be properly compared, I remember only the defcription of Heaven, in which the different manner of the two writers is fufficiently difcernible. Cowley's is fcarcely defcrip

tion, unless it be poffible to describe by negatives; for he tells us only what there is not in Heaven. Taffo endeavours to reprefent the fplendours and pleasures of the regions of happiness. Taffo affords images, and Cowley fentiments. It happens, however, that Taffo's defcription affords fome reafon for Rymer's cenfure. He fays of the Supreme Being, Hà fotto i piedi e fato e la natura

Miniftri humili, e'l moto, e ch'il mifura.

The second line has in it more of pedantry than perhaps can be found in any other stanza of the poem.

In the perufal of the Davideis, as of all Cowley's works, we find wit and learning unprofitably squandered. Attention has no relief; the affections are never moved; we are fometimes furprized, but never delighted, and find much to admire, but little to approve. Still however it is the work of Cowley, of a mind capacious by nature, and replenished by study.

In the general review of Cowley's poetry it will be found, that he wrote with abundant fertility, but negligent or unfkilful felection; with much thought, but with little imagery; that he is never pathetick, and rarely fublime; but always either ingenious or learned, either acute or profound.

It is faid by Denham in his elegy,

To him no author was unknown,

Yet what he writ was all his own.

This wide position requires lefs limitation, when it is affirmed of Cowley, than perhaps of any other poet. He read much, and yet borrowed little.

His character of writing was indeed not his own i he unhappily adopted that which was predominant. He saw a certain way to prefent praife; and, not fuf ficiently enquiring by what means the antients have continued to delight through all the changes of human manners, he contented himfelf with a deciduous laurel, of which the verdure in its fpring was bright and gay, but which time has been continually ftealing from his brows.

He was in his own time confidered as of unrivalled excellence. Clarendon represents him as having taken a flight beyond all that went before him; and Milton is faid to have declared, that the three greatest English poets were Spenfer, Shakspeare, and Cowley,

His manner he had in common with others; but his fentiments were his own. Upon every fubject he thought for himself; and fuch was his copiousness of knowledge, that fomething at once remote and applicable rushed into his mind; yet it is not likely that he always rejected a commodious idea merely because another had ufed it: his known wealth was fo great that he might have borrowed without lofs of credit.

In his elegy on Sir Henry Wotton, the laft lines have fuch refemblance to the noble epigram of Grotius on the death of Scaliger, that I cannot but think them copied from it, though they are copied by no fervile hand.

One paffage in his Mistress is so apparently borrowed from Donne, that he probably would not have written it, had it not mingled with his own thoughts,

fo

fo as that he did not perceive himself taking it from

another :

Although I think thou never found wilt be,

Yet I'm refolv'd to fearch for thee;
The fearch itself rewards the pains.
So, though the chymic his great fecret mifs
(For neither it in Art or Nature is),

Yet things well worth his toil he gains:
And does his charge and labour pay

With good unfought experiments by the way.

COWLEY.

Some that have deeper digg'd Love's mine than I,
Say, where his centric happiness doth lie:

I have lov'd, and got, and told;

But should I love, get, tell, till I were old,
I fhould not find that hidden mystery;
Oh, 'tis impofture all!

And as no chymic yet th' elixir got,
But glorifies his pregnant pot,
If by the way to him befal

Some odoriferous thing, or medicinal,

So lovers dream a rich and long delight,
But get a winter-fecming fummer's night.

Jonfon and Donne, as Dr. Hurd remarks, were then in the highest efteem.

It is related by Clarendon that Cowley always acknowledges his obligation to the learning and induftry of Jonfon; but I have found no traces of Jonfon in his works to emulate Donne appears to have been his purpose; and from Donne he may have learned that familiarity with religoius images, and that light allufion to facred things, by which readers far fhort of fanctity are frequently offended; and which would

not