whose head cannot keep his poetry unmingled with trade. To hinder that intellectual bankruptcy which he affects to fear, he will erect a Bank for Wit.

In this poem he justly censured Dryden's impurities, but praised his powers; though in a subsequent edition he retained the satire, and omitted the praise. What was his reason I know not; Dryden was then no longer in his way.

His head still teemed with heroick poetry; and (1705) he published Eliza, in ten books. I am afraid that the world was now weary of contending about Blackmore's heroes; for I do not remember that by any author, serious or comical, I have found Eliza either praised or blamed. She "dropped," as it seems, "dead-born from the press.' It is never mentioned, and was never seen by me till I borrowed it for the present occasion. Jacob says, "rected and revised for another impression; " but the labour of revision was thrown away.

"it is cor

From this time he turned some of his thoughts to the celebration of living characters; and wrote a poem on the Kit-cat Club, and Advice to the Poets how to celebrate the Duke of Marlborough; but, on occasion of another year of success, thinking himself qualified to give more instruction, he again wrote a poem of Advice to a Weaver of Tapestry. Steele was then publishing the Tatler; and, looking round him for something at which he might laugh, unluckily lighted on Sir Richard's work, and treated it with such contempt, that, as Fenton observes, he put an end to the species of writers that gave Advice to Painters.

Not long after (1712) he published Creation, a philosophical Poem, which has been by my recommendation inserted in the late collection. Whoever judges of this by any other of Blackmore's performances, will do it injury. The praise given it by Addison (Spec. 339) is too well known to be transcribed; but some notice is due to the testimony of Dennis, who calls it a "philosophical Poem, "which has equalled that of Lucretius in the beauty of its “versification, and infinitely surpassed it in the solidity "and strength of its reasoning."

Why an author surpasses himself, it is natural to enquire. I have heard from Mr. Draper, an eminent bookseller, an "That account received by him from Ambrose Philips, Blackmore, as he proceeded in this poem, laid his manu

"script from time to time before a club of wits with whom "he associated; and that every man contributed, as he σε could, either improvement or correction; so that," said Philips, "there are perhaps no where in the book thirty "lines together that now stand as they were originally "written."

The relation of Philips, I suppose, was true; but when all reasonable, all credible allowance is made for this friendly revision, the author will still retain an ample dividend of praise; for to him must always be assigned the plan of the work, the distribution of its parts, the choice of topicks, the train of argument, and, what is yet more, the general predominance of philosophical judgment and poetical spirit. Correction seldom effects more than the suppression of faults: a happy line, or a single elegance, may perhaps be added; but of a large work the general character must always remain: the original constitution can be very little helped by local remedies; inherent and radical dulness will never be much invigorated by extrinsick animation.

This poem, if he had written nothing else, would have transmitted him to posterity among the first favourites of the English Muse; but to make verses was his transcendent pleasure, and, as he was not deterred by censure, he was not satiated with praise.

He deviated, however, sometimes into other tracks of literature, and condescended to entertain his readers with plain prose. When the Spectator stopped, he considered the polite world as destitute of entertainment; and, in concert with Mr. Hughes, who wrote every third paper, published three times a week the Lay Monastery, founded on the supposition that some literary men, whose characters are described, had retired to a house in the country to enjoy philosophical leisure, and resolved to instruct the publick, by communicating their disquisitions and amusements. Whether any real persons were concealed under fictitious names, is not known. The hero of the club is one Mr. Johnson; such a constellation of excellence, that his character shall not be suppressed, though there is no great genius in the design, nor skill in the delineation.

"The first I shall name is Mr. Johnson, a gentleman "that owes to nature excellent faculties and an elevated

"genius, and to industry and application many acquired "accomplishments. His taste is distinguishing, just, and "delicate: his judgment clear, and his reason strong, ac"companied with an imagination full of spirit, of great "compass, and stored with refined ideas. He is a critick "of the first rank; and, what is his peculiar ornament, he "is delivered from the ostentation, malevolence, and su"percilious temper, that so often blemish men of that cha"racter. His remarks result from the nature and reason "of things, and are formed by a judgment free, and un"biassed by the authority of those who have lazily followed "each other in the same beaten track of thinking, and are "arrived only at the reputation of acute grammarians and "commentators; men, who have been copying one another

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many hundred years, without any improvement; or, if "they have ventured farther, have only applied in a me"chanical manner the rules of ancient criticks to modern "writings, and with great labour discovered nothing but "their own want of judgment and capacity. As Mr. "Johnson penetrates to the bottom of his subject, by which "means his observations are solid and natural, as well as "delicate, so his design is always to bring to light some"thing useful and ornamental; whence his character is the "reverse to theirs, who have eminent abilities in insigni"ficant knowledge, and a great felicity in finding out "trifles. He is no less industrious to search out the merit "of an author, than sagacious in discerning his errors and "defects; and takes more pleasure in commending the "beauties, than exposing the blemishes of a laudable "writing: like Horace, in a long work, he can bear some "deformities, and justly lay them on the imperfection of "human nature, which is incapable of faultless productions. "When an excellent drama appears in publick, and by its "intrinsick worth attracts a general applause, he is not "stung with envy and spleen; nor does he express a sa"vage nature in fastening upon the celebrated author, "dwelling upon his imaginary defects, and passing over "his conspicuous excellences. He treats all writers upon "the same impartial footing; and is not, like the little "criticks, taken up entirely in finding out only the beauties "of the ancient, and nothing but the errors of the modern writers. Never did any one express more kindness and

"good-nature to young and unfinished authors; he pro"motes their interests, protects their reputation, exte"nuates their faults, and sets off their virtues, and by his "candour guards them from the severity of his judgment. "He is not like those dry criticks, who are morose because "they cannot write themselves, but is himself master of a "good vein in poetry; and though he does not often em"ploy it, yet he has sometimes entertained his friends with ❝his unpublished performances."

The rest of the Lay Monks seem to be but feeble mortals, in comparison with the gigantic Johnson; who yet, with all his abilities, and the help of the fraternity, could drive the publication but to forty papers, which were afterwards collected into a volume, and called in the title A Sequel to the Spectators.

Some years afterwards (1716 and 1717) he published two volumes of Essays in prose, which can be commended only as they are written for the highest and noblest purpose, the promotion of religion. Blackmore's prose is not the prose of a poet; for it is languid, sluggish, and lifeless; his diction is neither daring nor exact, his flow neitherrapid nor easy, and his periods neither smooth nor strong. His account of Wit will show with how little clearness he is content to think, and how little his thoughts are recommended by his language.

"As to its efficient cause, Wit owes its production to an "extraordinary and peculiar temperament in the constitu❝tion of the possessor of it, in which is found a concur"rence of regular and exalted ferments, and an affluence "of animal spirits, refined and rectified to a great degree "of purity; whence, being endowed with vivacity, bright"ness, and celerity, as well in their reflections as direct "motions, they become proper instruments for the sprightly "operations of the mind; by which means the imagination "can with great facility range the wide field of nature, "contemplate an infinite variety of objects, and, by ob"serving the similitude and disagreement of their several "qualities, single out and abstract, and then suit and "unite, those ideas which will best serve its purpose. "Hence beautiful allusions, surprising metaphors, and "admirable sentiments, are always ready at hand: and "while the ancy is full of images, collected from innu

"merable objects and their different qualities, relations, " and habitudes, it can at pleasure dress a common notion "in a strange but becoming garb; by which, as before ob"served, the same thought will appear a new one, to the "great delight and wonder of the hearer. What we call "genius results from this particular happy complexion in "the first formation of the person that enjoys it, and is "Nature's gift, but diversified by various specifick charac"ters and limitations, as its active fire is blended and allayed "by different proportions of phlegm, or reduced and re66 gulated by the contrast of opposite ferments. Therefore, "as there happens in the composition of a facetious genius 66 a greater or less, though still an inferior, degree of judg"ment and prudence, one man of wit will be varied and "distinguished from another."

In these Essays he took little care to propitiate the wits; for he scorns to avert their malice at the expence of virtue or of truth.

"Several, in their books, have many sarcastical and "spiteful strokes at religion in general; while others make "themselves pleasant with the principles of the Christian. “Of the last kind, this age has seen a most audacious "example in the book intitled A Tale of a Tub. Had this "writing been published in a Pagan or Popish nation, "who are justly impatient of all indignity offered to the "established religion of their country, no doubt but the "author would have received the punishment he deserved. "But the fate of this impious buffoon is very different; "for in a Protestant kingdom, zealous of their civil and "religious immunities, he has not only escaped affronts " and the effects of publick resentment, but has been ca❝ressed and patronized by persons of great figure, and of "all denominations. Violent party-men, who differed in all "things besides, agreed in their turn to show particular 66 respect and friendship to this insolent derider of the "worship of his country, till at last the reputed writer is "not only gone off with impunity, but triumphs in

his dignity and preferment. I do not know that any "inquiry or search was ever made after this writing, or "that any reward was ever offered for the discovery of the "author, or that the infamous book was ever condemned