CHORUS. Love's purer flames the Gods approve; And fterner Caffius melts at Junia's eyes. Spent in a fudden storm of luft, A vapour fed from wild defire, A wand'ring, felf-confuming fire. But Hymen's kinder flames unite, And burn for ever one; Chafte as cold Cynthia's virgin light, Productive as the Sun. SEMICHORUS. Oh fource of ev'ry social tye, United wifh, and mutual joy! What various joys on one attend, 15 20 25 As fon, as father, brother, husband, friend? VER. 31. Or meets] Recalling to our minds that pathetic stroke in Lucretius; " dulces occurrunt ofcula nati Fræripere, et tacitâ pectus dulcedine tangunt." Lib. iii. 909. WARTON. What tender paffions take their turns, His heart now melts, now leaps, now burns, CHORUS. Hence guilty joys, distastes, furmises, Fires that scorch, yet dare not shine: Pureft love's unwafting treasure, 36 40 NOTES. a These two Chorus's are enough to fhew us his great talents for this fpecies of Poetry, and to make us lament he did not profecute his purpose in executing fome plans he had chalked out; but the Character of the Managers of Playhouses at that time, was what (he faid) foon determined him to lay afide all thoughts of that nature. WARBUKTON. Perhaps there were other reasons which determined Pope to lay afide all thoughts of the Drama. ODE ON ODE ON SOLITUDE. HAPPY the man, whose wish and care 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 share 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 longeft day well-fpent; Dr. Warton says, "Thefe ftanzas on Solitude are characteristic of the Author's contemplative and moral turn of mind;" but more probably fuch ideas, thofe of rural life, innocence, content, &c. as they are the eafieft expreffed, fo are they generally the moft 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, Thus let me live, unseen, unknown, SCALIGER, Voltaire, and Grotius, were but eighteen years old when they produced, the two first their Œdipuses, 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 difplayed with accuracy and truth. Mr. Spence informed me that Pope once faid to him, “I wrote things, I am afhamed to fay how foon; part of my epic poem Alcander when about twelve. The fcene of it lay in Rhodes and fome of the neighbouring islands; and the poem opened under the water, with a description of the court of Neptune; that couplet on the circulation of the blood, which I afterwards inferted in the Dunciad, As man's meanders, to the vital spring 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 fome parts of it, as a fpecimen, had been more carefully preferved. Quintilian, N 4 Quintilian, whose knowledge of human nature was confummate, has obferved, that nothing quite correct and faultless 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 exactness is a certain evidence of future flatness 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 severa. Facile remedium eft 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 ipfa feftinet, nec mufta in lacu ftatim auftera fint; fic et annos ferent, et vetuftate proficient." This is very ftrong and masculine fense, expréffed and enlivened by a train of metaphors, all of them elegant, and well preferved. 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 fubject for me to enlarge upon. Let me rather add an entertaining anecdote. 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 crofs; that of Dominichino represented 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 rivalfhip and contention. "Guido (faid Carrache) has performed as a mafter, 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 perceive faults in the picture of Dominichino that Guido has avoided, but then there are noble ftrokes, not to be found in that of his rival." It was easy 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 themfelves at different periods of life. In |