on this Writer, we fhall confine ourselves chiefly to that part of it which is allotted to his facred poems, which do not please, we are told, like fome of his other works.

It has been the frequent lamentation of good men, that verfe has been too little applied to the purposes of worship, and many attempts have been made to animate devotion by pious poetry; that they have very feldom attained their end is fufficiently known, and it may not be improper to enquire why they have mifcarried.

Let no pious ear be offended if I advance, in oppofition to many authorities, that poetical devotion cannot often pleafe. The doctrines of religion may indeed be defended in a didactic poem; and he who has the happy power of arguing in verfe, will not lofe it because his fubject is facred. A poet may defcribe the beauty and the grandeur of Nature, the flowers of the Spring, and the harvefts of Autumn, the viciffitudes of the Tide, and the revolutions of the Sky, and praise the Maker for his works in lines which no reader fhalk Jay afide. The fubject of the difputation is not piety, but the motives to piety; that of the defcription is not God, but the works of God.

·

Contemplative piety, or the intercourfe between God and the human foul, cannot be poetical. Man admitted to implore the mercy of his Creator, and plead the merits of his Redeemer, is already in a higher ftate than poetry can confer.

The effence of poetry is invention; fuch invention as, by producing fomething unexpected, furprifes and delights. The topics of devotion are few, and being few are univerfally known; but few as they are, they can be made no more; they can receive no grace from novelty of fentiment, and very little from novelty of expreffion.

Poetry pleases by exhibiting an idea more grateful to the mind than things themselves afford. This effect proceeds from the difplay of thofe parts of nature which attract, and the concealment of thofe which repel the imagination: but religion must be fhewn as it is; fuppreffion and addition equally corrupt it; and fuch as it is, it is known already.

From poetry the reader juftly expects, and from good poetry always obtains, the enlargement of his comprehenfion and elevation of his fancy; but this is rarely to be hoped by Chriftians from metrical devotion. Whatever is great, defirable, or tremendous, is comprifed in the name of the Supreme Being. Omnipotence cannot be exalted; Infinity cannot be amplified; Perfection cannot be improved.

The employments of pious meditation are Faith, Thanksgiving, Repentance, and Supplication. Faith, invariably uniform, cannot be invefted by fancy with decorations. Thankfgiving, the most joyful of all holy effufions, yet addreffed to a Being without paffions, is confined to a few modes, and is to be felt rather than expreffed. Repentance, trembling in the prefence of the Judge, is not at leifure. for cadences and epithets. Supplication of man to man may diffufe itself through many topics of perfuafion; but fupplication to God can only cry for mercy,

Of

Of fentiments purely religious, it will be found that the most fimple expreflion is the moft fublime. Poetry lofes its luftre and its power, because it is applied to the decoration of fomething more excellent than itself. All that verfe can do is to help the memory, and delight the ear, and for these purposes it may be very useful; but it fupplies nothing to the mind. The ideas of Chriftian Theology are too fimple for eloquence, too facred for fiction, and too majeltic for ornament; to recommend them by tropes and figures, is to magnify by a concave mirror the fidereal hemifphere.'

It is thus that he very properly accounts for the failure of Waller in his facred poems, and not their being written, as his former Editor fuppofes, after his genius had paffed the zenith.

That natural jealoufy which makes every man unwilling to allow much excellence in another, always produces a difpofition to believe that the mind grows old with the body; and that he, whom we are now forced to confefs fuperior, is haftening daily to a level with ourfelves. By delighting to think this of the living, we learn to think it of the dead; and Fenton, with all his kindness for Waller, has the luck to mark the exact time when his genius paffed the zenith, which he places at his fifty-fifth year. This is to allot the mind but a small portion. Intellectual decay is doubtless not uncommon; but it feems not to be univerfal. Newton was in his eighty-fifth year improving his Chronology, a few days before his death; and Waller appears not, in my opinion, to have loft at eightytwo any part of his poetical powers.'

Some writers carry this fanciful idea of Fenton's still farther, afferting that, though judgment may retain its vigour to a more diftant period, imagination gradually decays at thirty-fix. Were arguments wanting to confute fuch groundlefs affertions, we need only adduce the inftance of the learned and ingenious Critic whofe obfervations are now before us. He, certainly, has paffed the zenith allotted to imagination, and probably the farther term which Fenton affigns to the genius of Waller, and yet his writings betray no abatement of intellectual abilities: his imagination ftill retains the full vigour of youth.-But enough of this trifling; let us return to Waller.

The general character of his poetry, fays his biographer, is elegance and gaiety. He is never pathetic, and very rarely fublime. He feems neither to have had a mind much elevated by nature, nor amplified by learning. His thoughts are fuch as a liberal converfation and large acquaintance with life would easily supply. They had however, then perhaps, that grace of novelty, which they are now often fuppofed to want by thofe who, having already found them in later books, do not know or enquire who produced them first. This treatment is unjuft. Let not the original author lofe by his imitators.

But of the praise of Waller, though much may be taken away, much will remain; for it cannot be denied that he added fomething to our elegance of diction, and fomething to our propriety of thought; and to him may be applied what Taffo faid, with equal fpirit and justice, of himfelf and Guarini, when, having perufed the

Paftor

Paftor Fido, he cried out, excelled it."

"If he had not read Aminta, he had not

[The other Lives in our next.]

ART. II. The Antiquarian Repertory. 2 Vols. 4to. Continued. UR Readers have learned from the former Article * relative to this work, that the Editor did not propofe to exhibit fubjects wholly new, but chiefly intended his volumes as a depofitory for fuch antiquities, &c. as, though known, yet through neglect, or length of time, may fink into obfcurity, or of which little knowledge can be obtained without difficulty. Some of the firft kind, we apprehend, may be here interfperfed, but the latter form the principal part of this publication.

A remarkable anecdote of Judge Jefferys is faid never before to have appeared in print:

At a contested election for a member to ferve in parliament for the town of Arundel, in Suffex, government ftrenuously interfered, and that fo openly as to fend Jefferys, then Lord Chancellor, with inftructions to ufe every method to procure the return of the Court candidate. On the day of election, in order to intimidate the electors, he placed himfelf on the huflings clofe by the returning officer, the mayor, who had been an attorney, but was retired from bufinefs, with an ample fortune and fair character. This officer well knew the Chancellor, but for prudential reafons acted as if he was a stranger both to his perfon and rank.

In the courfe of the poll, that magiftrate, who fcrutinized every man before he admitted him to vote, rejected one of the court party; at which Jefferys rifing in a heat, after several indecent reflections, declared the man fhould poll, adding, "I am the Lord Chancellor of this realm. The mayor, regarding him with a lock of the highest contempt, replied, "Your ungentlemanlike behaviour convinces me, it is impoffible you fhould be the perfon you pretend; was you the Chancellor, you would know that you have nothing to do here, where I alone prefide;" then turning to the crier, “Officer," faid he, "turn that fellow out of court." His commands were obeyed without hefitation; the Chancellor retired to his inn, in great confufion, and the election terminated in favour of the popu lar candidate.

In the evening, the mayor, to his great furprise, received a meffage from Jefferys, defiring the favour of his company at the inn; which he declining, the Chancellor came to his house, and being introduced to him, made the following compliment: "Sir, notwithftanding we are in different interefts, I cannot help revering one who fo well knows, and dares fo nobly execute, the law; and though I myfelf was fomewhat degraded thereby, you did but your duty. You, as I have learned, are independent, but you may have fome relation who is not fo well provided for; if you have, let me have the plea

*Review for April.

fure

fure of presenting him with a confiderable place in my gift, juft now vacant." Such an offer, and fo handfomely made, could not fail of drawing the acknowledgments of the party to whom it was made; he having a nephew in no very affluent circumftances, named him to the Chancellor, who immediately figned the neceffary inftrument for his appointment to a very lucrative and honourable emplovment."

The Writer's remark on the above narration is, that no character is completely confiftent; as appears in the conduct of this judge, who feems to have approved the virtue which he did not practife: however, we may learn from it that a bullying, tyrannical tool of a party may fometimes at least be pretty eafily humbled and confounded by a man of fenfe, integrity, and honour it is perhaps to be wifhed that this worthy magiftrate had yet carried his firmnefs a degree farther, by declining any connection with an arbitrary and corrupt administration.

Pont Y Prid bridge cannot fail to attract the notice of the traveller in Wales. It is built over the river Taafe in Glamorganfhire, fix miles from Cardiff, in a moft romantic country. For lightnefs, and the width of its fpan, it is faid to ftand unrivalled, not only by any bridge in England, but even in Europe, and perhaps the whole world; exceeding the arch of the Rialto at Venice by 50 feet, and that of the centre of Blackfriars by 40 feet.

This bridge, fays the writer, is a proof that extraordinary genius will rife fuperior to every impediment or difadvantage. Both the mason who defigned and executed it, and the workman who formed the centre, were common country artificers, unpatronized by the great, and neither graduated in any univerfity, nor fellows of any academy; and fo far were they from having visited Italy, in order to avail themselves of the knowledge of the ancients, or to view the works of the moderns, that they probably were hardly ever out of their native country, were perhaps ftrangers to the names of Vitruvius and Palladio, and never heard of the Rialto. However, in compenfation for thefe deficiencies, they poffeffed good fenfe, which, as Mr. Pope obferves," although no fcience, is fairly worth the feven."

The name of the mafon is William Edward; he contrasted with the county for a certain fum of money to build them a bridge which fhould ftand at leaft fix years, and accordingly built one of three arches; but a flood happening, which is no uncommon event in this mountainous country, it was carried away by the impetuolity of the

river.

⚫ He next conceived the defign of constructing his bridge of one fingle arch, and accordingly completed it; but here he was again foiled; for the preffure of the abutment not being in equilibrio with that of the crown of the arch, squeezed it out at the top. Not dif heartened at this, he fet about contriving how that fault might be avoided, and hit on the prefent method, by making three cylindrical apertures through each fide, thereby not only confiderably leffening the weight of lateral preffure, but adding greatly to the picturesque

form

form and elegance of the bridge, which bids fair to tranfmit his fame to future generations. The name of the artift, who formed the centre, is Thomas Williams, by trade a millwright.'

We think it a neglect in the Editor not to have informed his readers, at leaft, of the year when this bridge was finished. The plate, which is a very pretty one, is engraved, he tells us, from a drawing, made anno 1774.

We have been diverted by reading, "A Defcription of England and Scotland," written in French by one Stephen Perlin, an ecclefiaftic, and published at Paris, anno 1558.' The imperfect, or erroneous, account which he often gives, and the fmall accidental circumftances' from whence, in fome inftances, he forms his judgment, made us recollect a much fuperior author, M. Grofley, who, a few years ago, publifhed, "A Tour to London *, &c." A very indifferent and fometimes greatly offenfive picture is drawn of the English by Stephen Perlin, the ecclefiaftic. To the Scotch he is more favourable : speaking of the latter he fays, This country, although it is in a bad neighbourhood, being near a haughty, treacherous, and proud enemy, has nevertheless fuftained itfelf in a manly fort by the means and affiftance of the moft noble king of France, who has many times let the English know what were the confequences of the anger of fo great a monarch and emperor. But thanks to God, the affairs of this country have been regulated, and every thing goes on well, and for their benefit and that of their kingdom. How happy oughteft thou to esteem thyfelf, O kingdom of Scotland, to be favoured, fed, and maintained, like an infant, on the breaft of the most puiffant and magnanimous king of France, the greatest lord in the whole world, and future monarch of that round machine, for without him thou wouldeft have been laid in afhes, thy country wafted and ruined by the English, utterly accurfed of God.' So much for Master Perlin!

The English are treated with greater respect by the Sieur de la Serre, Hiftoriographer of France. His Hiftory of the Entry of Mary de Medicis, the Queen-mother of France, into England, Anno 1638,' is here tranflated from the French. The original was published in 1639. La Serre's fubject leads him to speak the more honourably of the English, that he may magnify the Queen-mother and royal family of France and this, Frenchman-like, he does with the most difguftful fervility and flattery.

Among other prints, a view of Old London, from Blackheath, is very pleafing:

• Vid, Review, vol. xlvii, p. 165.

• The