Of this filence and neglect, if the reafon be inquired, it will be found partly in the choice of the fubject, and partly in the performance of the work.

Sacred History has been always read with fubmiffive reverence, and an imagination over-awed and controlled. We have been accustomed to acquiefce in the nakedness and simplicity of the authentic narrative, and to repofe on its veracity with fuch humble confidence, as fuppreffes curiofity. We go with the hiftorian as he goes, and ftop with him when he ftops. All amplification is frivolous and vain; all addition to that which is already fufficient for the purposes of religion, seems not only useless, but in fome degree profane.

Such events as were produced by the visible interpofition of Divine Power are above the power of human genius to dignify. The miracle of Creation, however it may teem with images, is best described with little diffufion of language: He spake the word, and they were made.

We are told that Saul was troubled with an evil spirit ; from this Cowley takes an opportunity of defcribing hell, and telling the hiftory of Lucifer, who was, he fays,

Once general of a gilded hoft of fprites,

Like Hefper leading forth the fpangled nights;

But down like lightning, which him ftruck, he came,
And roar'd at his firft plunge into the flame.

Lucifer makes a fpeech to the inferior agents of mischief, in which there is fomething of heathenifm, and therefore of impropriety; and, to give efficacy to his words, concludes by lafhing his breast with his long

E 4

tail.

tail. Envy, after a paufe, fteps out, and among other declarations of her zeal utters thefe lines:

Do thou but threat, loud storms shall make reply,
And thunder echo to the trembling sky.
Whilft raging feas fwell to fo bold an height,
As fhall the fire's proud element affright.

Th' old drudging Sun, from his long beaten way,
Shall at thy voice ftart, and mifguide the day.
The jocund orbs fhall break their measur'd pace,
And stubborn poles change their allotted place.
Heaven's gilded troops fhall flutter here and there,
Leaving their boasting songs tun'd to a sphere.

Every reader feels himself weary with this useless talk of an allegorical Being.

It is not only when the events are confeffedly miraculous, that fancy and fiction lofe their effect: the whole fyftem of life, while the Theocracy was yet vifible, has an appearance fo different from all other scenes of human action, that the reader of the Sacred Volume habitually confiders it as the peculiar mode of existence of a diftinct fpecies of mankind, that lived and acted with manners uncommunicable; fo that it is difficult even for imagination to place us in the ftate of them whose story is related, and by confequence their joys and griefs are not easily adopted, nor can the attention be often interested in any thing that befalls them.

To the fubject thus originally indisposed to the reception of poetical embellishments, the writer brought little that could reconcile impatience, or attract curiofity. Nothing can be more disgusting than a narrative fpangled with conceits, and conceits are all that the Davideis fupplies.

One of the great fources of poetical delight is defcription, or the power of prefenting pictures to the mind.

Cowley

165

Cowley gives inferences inftead of images, and fhews
not what may be supposed to have been feen, but what
thoughts the fight might have fuggefted. When Vir-
gil defcribes the ftone which Turnus lifted against
Eneas, he fixes the attention on its bulk and weight:
Saxum circumfpicit ingens,

Saxum antiquum, ingens, campo quod forte jacebat
Limes agro pofitus, litem ut difcerneret arvis.

Cowley fays of the ftone with which Cain flew his brother,

I faw him fling the ftone, as if he meant
At once his murther and his monument.

Of the fword taken from Goliah, he fays,

A fword fo great, that it was only fit

To cut off his great head that came with it.

Other poets defcribe death by fome of its common appearances; Cowley fays, with a learned allufion to fepulchral lamps real or fabulous,

'Twixt his right ribs deep pierc'd the furious blade,

And open'd wide those secret veffels where

Life's light goes out, when firft they let in air.

But he has allufions vulgar as well as learned. In a vifionary fucceffion of kings:

Joas at firft does bright and glorious show,

In life's freth morn his fame does early crow.

Describing an undifciplined army, after having faid with elegance,

His forces feem'd no army, but a crowd

Heartlefs, unarm'd, disorderly, and loud,

he gives them a fit of the

ague,

The

人。

The allufions however are not always to vulgar things: he offends by exaggeration as much as by diminution :

The king was plac'd alone, and o'er his head

A well-wrought heaven of filk and gold was spread. Whatever he writes is always polluted with fome conceit :

Where the fun's fruitful beams give metals birth,
Where he the growth of fatal gold does fee,

Gold, which alone more influence has than he.

In one paffage he starts a fudden question, to the confufion of philofophy:

Ye learned heads, whom ivy garlands grace,
Why does that twining plant the oak embrace?
The oak, for courtship moft of all unfit,

And rough as are the winds that fight with it.

His expreffions have sometimes a degree of meannefs that furpaffes expectation:

Nay, gentle guests, he cries, fince now you're in,
The ftory of your gallant friend begin.

In a fimile defcriptive of the Morning:

As glimmering stars juft at th' approach of day,
Cashier'd by troops, at laft drop all away.

The dress of Gabriel deferves attention:

He took for skin a cloud moft foft and bright,
That e'er the midday fun pierc'd through with light,
Upon his cheeks a lively blush he spread,
Wash'd from the morning beauties deepest red;
An harmless flattering meteor fhone for hair,

And fell adown his shoulders with loofe care;

He cuts out a filk mantle from the skes,

Where the moft fprightly azure pleas'd the eyes;

This he with starry vapours sprinkles all,

Took in their prime ere they grow ripe and fall;
Of a new rainbow ere it fret or fade,

The choiceft piece cut out, a scarfe is made,

59

This is a juft fpecimen of Cowley's imagery: what might in general expreffions be great and forcible, he weakens and makes ridiculous by branching it into fmall parts. That Gabriel was invested with the softest or brightest colours of the fky, we might have been told, and been difmiffed to improve the idea in our different proportions of conception; but Cowley could not let us go till he had related where Gabriel got firft his fkin, and then his mantle, then his lace, and then his fcarfe, and related it in the terms of the mercer and taylor.

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 small store was good;
Writing, man's spiritual phyfic, was not then

Itself, as now, grown a disease of men.

Learning (young virgin) but few fuitors knew;

The common prostitute she lately grew,

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

As the Davideis affords only four books, though intended to confift of twelve, there is no opportunity for fuch criticisms as Epick poems commonly fupply. 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 ex

tent