ODE ON SOLITUDE. APPY the man, whose wish and care HAPPY A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air, In his own ground. Whofe herds with milk, whofe fields with bread, a This was a very early production of our Author, written at about twelve years old. POPE. VER. 1. Happy the man, &c.] Might not Pope have seen, when very young, Cotton's pleafing lines on Contentation? That man is happy in his fhare Who is warm clad and cleanly fed, Whofe neceffaries bound his care, And honeft labour makes his bed. Who with his angle and his books Can think the longest day well-spent ; Dr. Warton fays, "These ftanzas on Solitude are characteristic of the Author's contemplative and moral turn of mind;" but more probably such ideas, thofe of rural life, innocence, content, &c. as they are the eafieft expreffed, so are they generally the most obvious, and, as fuch, would be natural to all young writers. Bleft, who can unconcern'dly find years In health of body, peace of mind, Sound fleep by night; ftudy and ease, And innocence, which most does please. Thus let me live, unseen, unknown, SCALIGER, Voltaire, and Grotius, were but eighteen years old when they produced, the two first their dipuses, and the last his Adamus Exul. But the most 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 displayed with accuracy and truth. Mr. Spence informed me that Pope once faid to him, "I wrote things, I am ashamed to say how foon ; part of my epic poem Alcander when about twelve. The fcene 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 fpring 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 some parts of it, as a specimen, had been more carefully preserved. Quintilian, N 4 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 exactnefs is a certain evidence of future flatnefs 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 est 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 et quod exculpi :—erit autem, fi non ab initio tenuem laminam duxerimus, et quam cælatura altior rumpat.—Quare mihi ne maturitas quidem ipsa festinet, nec musta in lacu ftatim auftera fint; fic et annos ferent, et vetuftate proficient." This is very ftrong and masculine 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 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 anec dote. 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 cross; 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 master, 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 per ceive faults in the picture of Dominichino that Guido has avoided, but then there are noble strokes, not to be found in that of his rival." It was eafy to difcern a genius that promised to produce beauties, to which the fweet, the gentle, and the graceful Guido would never afpire. The first sketches of fuch an artist ought highly to be prized. -Different geniufes unfold themselves at different periods of life. In fome minds the ore is a long time in ripening. Not only inclination, but opportunity and encouragement, a proper fubject, or a proper patron, influence the exertion or the fuppreffion of genius. These ftanzas on Solitude are a strong inftance of that contemplation and moral turn, which was the diftinguishing charac. teristic of our Poet's mind. An ode of Cowley, which he produced at the age of thirteen years, is of the same cast, and perhaps not in the leaft inferior to this of Pope. The voluminous Lopez de Vega is commonly, but perhaps incredibly, reported by the Spaniards to have composed verses 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 fmall 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. WARTON. It may not be uninterefting to compare the fucceffion of Pope's productions, with the progrefs of his mind and character. In this his earliest effufion, all is rural quiet, innocence, content, &c. We next fee, in his Paftorals, the "Golden Age" of happiness, while the "SHEPHERD LAD leads forth his flock, Befide the filver Thame." His next step, Windsor Forest, exhibits the fame rural turn, but with views more diverfified and extended, and approaching more to the real history and concerns of life. The warm paffions of youth fucceed; and we are interested in the fate of the tender. Sappho, or the ardent and unfortunate Eloife. As the world opens, local manners are difplayed. In the Rape of the Lock, we see the first playful effort of Satire, without ill-nature, at once gay, elegant, and delightful: "Belinda fmiles, and all the world is gay." The man of feverer thought now appears, in the Effay on Man. The fame vein fhews itself in the Moral Effays; but the investigation is directed to individual failings, and mingled with fpleen. and anger. In the later Satires, we witness the language of acrimony and bitterness. The Dunciad closes the prospect, and we there behold the aged Bard amid a fwarm of enemies, who began his career, all innocence, happiness, and smiles. THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL*. ODE. I. VITAL VITAL spark of heav'nly flame! II. Hark! they whifper; Angels fay, What is this abforbs me quite? Steals my fenfes, fhuts my fight, Drowns my fpirits, draws my breath? III. The world recedes; it difappears! This ode was written in imitation of the famous fonnet of Hadrian to his departing foul; but as much fuperior in fenfe and fublimity to its original, as the Chriftian religion is to the Pagan. WARBURTON. |