ESSAYS HISTORICAL AND LITERARY. 509

been entitled to a very high rank in the public eltimation, which indeed, while the public judg- ment was as yet immature, he aEtually enjoyed. In the prefent improved {tate ofverfification, we have few produelions of the Englifh mule more foft, more gay, more airy, than his Anacreon- tics, his Acme and Septimius, and his Chronicle. On the other hand, in the pathetic and plaintive ftile, few pieces exhibit a more mournful flow 0F numbers than his Elegy on Harvey, the poem {liled the Complaint, and Tome others. He knew how to exprelsias well as feel the molt tender, as xvell as the molt lively emotions of

the foul.

“ Forgot his Epic, nay Pinclaric art, Yet fiill we lore the language of his heart."

Waller mult be regarded as greatly inferior to Cowley in genius; but he pofliellned a more cor- reEt tafie and truer judgment. His verfification, when compared with that of the majority of his predecellors, is eminently fmooth and harmo- nious; and he contributed much to polilh and refine the elegant art which he cultivated.

Thomfonk celebrated poem, The Seafons, enjoys a reputation at leall equal to it-s merit. As Pope has been called the Poet of Reafon, Thomfon may with equal jultice be {tiled the Poet of Nature. He furveyed her various

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