The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland Volume V Part 7

III. A Letter to Dr. Holdsworth, concerning the Resurrection of the same Body. First published in 1726.

IV. A Vindication of Mr. Lock's Christian Principles, from the injurious Imputations of Dr. Holdsworth. Now first published.

V. Remarks upon some Writers in the Controversy, concerning the Foundation of Moral Virtue, and Moral Obligation. With some Thoughts concerning Necessary Existence; the Reality and Infinity of s.p.a.ce; the Extension and Place of Spirits; and on Dr. Watts's Notion of Substance.

First published in 1743.

CONTENTS of the Second Volume.

I. Remarks upon Dr. Rutherforth's Essay on the Nature and Obligations of Virtue. First published in the year 1747.

II. Miscellaneous Pieces. Now first printed. Containing a Letter of Advice to her Son.-Sunday's Journal.-On the Usefulness of Schools and Universities.-On the Credibility of the Historical Parts of Scripture. -On Moral Virtue.-Notes on Christianity as old as the Creation.-On the Infallibility of the Church of Rome.-Answer to a Question concerning the Jurisdiction of the Magistrate over the Life of the Subject.-Remarks on Mr. Seed's Sermon on Moral Virtue.-Remarks upon an Enquiry into the Origin of Human Appet.i.tes and Affections.

III. Letters between Mrs. c.o.c.kburn and several of her Friends. These take up the greatest part of the volume.

IV. Letters between the Rev. Dr. Sharp, Archdeacon of Northumberland and Mrs. c.o.c.kburn concerning the Foundation of Moral Virtue.

V. Fatal Friendship, a Tragedy.

VI. Poems on several Occasions. There are very few of these, and what there are, are of little note. Her poetical talent was the smallest and least valuable of our author's literary accomplishments.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Historia Mulierum Philosopharum. 8vo. Lyons. 1690.

[2] Dr. Birch mentions also Mr. Higgons's verses on this occasion, and gives a copy of a complimentary letter to our author, from Mr.

George Farquhar.

[3] Author of an excellent pamphlet, ent.i.tled, Two Dissertations concerning the Etymology and Scripture-meaning of the Hebrew Words Elohim and Berith. Vide Monthly Review.

AMBROSE PHILLIPS, ESQ;

This Gentleman was descended from a very ancient, and considerable family in the county of Leicester, and received his education in St. John's college Cambridge, where he wrote his Pastorals, a species of excellence, in which he is thought to have remarkably distinguished himself. When Mr. Philips quitted the university, and repaired to the metropolis, he became, as Mr. Jacob phrases it, one of the wits at b.u.t.tons; and in consequence of this, contracted an acquaintance with those bright genius's who frequented it; especially Sir Richard Steele, who in the first volume of his Tatler inserts a little poem of this author's dated from Copenhagen, which he calls a winter piece; Sir Richard thus mentions it with honour. 'This is as fine a piece, as we ever had from any of the schools of the most learned painters; such images as these give us a new pleasure in our fight, and fix upon our minds traces of reflexion, which accompany us wherever the like objects occur.'

This short performance which we shall here insert, was reckoned so elegant, by men of taste then living, that Mr. Pope himself, who had a confirmed aversion to Philips, when he affected to despise his other works, always excepted this out of the number.

It is written from Copenhagen, addressed to the Earl of Dorset, and dated the 9th of May 1709.

A WINTER PIECE.

From frozen climes, and endless tracks of snow, From streams that northern winds forbid to flow; What present shall the Muse to Dorset bring, Or how, so near the Pole, attempt to sing?

The h.o.a.ry winter here conceals from sight, All pleasing objects that to verse invite.

The hills and dales, and the delightful woods, The flow'ry plains, and silver streaming floods, By snow distinguished in bright confusion lie, And with one dazling waste, fatigue the eye.

No gentle breathing breeze prepares the spring, No birds within the desart region sing.

The ships unmov'd the boist'rous winds defy, While rattling chariots o'er the ocean fly.

The vast Leviathan wants room to play, And spout his waters in the face of day.

The starving wolves along the main sea prowl, And to the moon in icy valleys howl, For many a shining league the level main, Here spreads itself into a gla.s.sy plain: There solid billows of enormous size, Alps of green ice, in wild disorder rise.

And yet but lately have I seen ev'n here, The winter in a lovely dress appear.

Ere yet the clouds let fall the treasur'd snow, Or winds begun through hazy skies to blow; At ev'ning a keen eastern breeze arose; And the descending rain unsully'd froze.

Soon as the silent shades of night withdrew, The ruddy morn disclos'd at once to view, The face of nature in a rich disguise, And brighten'd every object to my eyes: And ev'ry shrub, and ev'ry blade of gra.s.s, And ev'ry pointed thorn seem'd wrought in gla.s.s.

In pearls and rubies rich, the hawthorns show, While through the ice the crimson berries glow.

The thick sprung reeds, the watry marshes yield, Seem polish'd lances in a hostile field.

The flag in limpid currents with surprize, Sees crystal branches on his fore-head rise.

The spreading oak, the beech, and tow'ring pine, Glaz'd over, in the freezing aether shine.

The frighted birds, the rattling branches shun.

That wave and glitter in the distant sun.

When if a sudden gust of wind arise, The brittle forest into atoms flies: The crackling wood beneath the tempest bends, And in a spangled show'r the prospect ends.

Or, if a southern gale the region warm, And by degrees unbind the wintry charm, The traveller, a miry country sees, And journeys sad beneath the dropping trees.

Like some deluded peasant, Merlin leads Thro' fragrant bow'rs, and thro' delicious meads; While here inchanted gardens to him rise, And airy fabrics there attract his eyes, His wand'ring feet the magic paths pursue; And while he thinks the fair illusion true, The trackless scenes disperse in fluid air, And woods, and wilds, and th.o.r.n.y ways appear: A tedious road the weary wretch returns, And, as he goes, the transient vision mourns.

But it was not enough for Sir Richard to praise this performance of Mr. Philips. He was also an admirer of his Pastorals, which had then obtained a great number of readers: He was about to form a Critical Comparison of Pope's Pastorals, and these of Mr. Philips; and giving in the conclusion, the preference to the latter. Sir Richard's design being communicated to Mr. Pope, who was not a little jealous of his reputation, he took the alarm; and by the most artful and insinuating method defeated his purpose.

The reader cannot be ignorant, that there are several numbers in the Guardian, employed upon Pastoral Poetry, and one in particular, upon the merits of Philips and Pope, in which the latter is found a better versifier; but as a true Arcadian, the preference is given to Philips. That we may be able to convey a perfect idea of the method which Mr. Pope took to prevent the diminution of his reputation, we shall transcribe the particular parts of that paper in the Guardian, Number XL. Monday April the 27th.

I designed to have troubled the reader with no farther discourses of Pastorals, but being informed that I am taxed of partiality, in not mentioning an author, whose Eclogues are published in the same volume with Mr. Philips's, I shall employ this paper in observations upon him, written in the free spirit of criticism, and without apprehensions of offending that gentleman, whose character it is, that he takes the greatest care of his works before they are published, and has the least concern for them afterwards. I have laid it down as the first rule of Pastoral, that its idea should be taken from the manners of the Golden Age, and the moral formed upon the representation of innocence; 'tis therefore plain, that any deviations from that design, degrade a poem from being true Pastoral.

So easy as Pastoral writing may seem (in the simplicity we have described it) yet it requires great reading, both of the ancients and moderns, to be a master of it. Mr. Philips hath given us manifest proofs of his knowledge of books; it must be confessed his compet.i.tor has imitated some single thoughts of the antients well enough, if we consider he had not the happiness of an university education: but he hath dispersed them here and there without that order and method Mr. Philips observes, whose whole third pastoral, is an instance how well he studied the fifth of Virgil, and how judiciously he reduced Virgil's thoughts to the standard of pastoral; and his contention of Colin Clout, and the Nightingale, shews with what exactness he hath imitated Strada. When I remarked it as a princ.i.p.al fault to introduce fruits, and flowers of a foreign growth in descriptions, where the scene lies in our country, I did not design that observation should extend also to animals, or the sensitive life; for Philips hath with great judgment described wolves in England in his first pastoral. Nor would I have a poet slavishly confine himself, (as Mr. Pope hath done) to one particular season of the year, one certain time of the day, and one unbroken scene in each Eclogue. It is plain, Spencer neglected this pedantry, who in his Pastoral of November, mentions the mournful song of the Nightingale.

Sad Philomel, her song in tears doth sleep.

And Mr. Philips by a poetical creation, hath raised up finer beds of flowers, than the most industrious gardener; his roses, lilies, and daffadils, blow in the same season.

But the better to discover the merit of our two cotemporary pastoral writers. I shall endeavour to draw a parallel of them, by placing several of their particular thoughts in the same light; whereby it will be obvious, how much Philips hath the advantage: With what simplicity he introduces two shepherds singing alternately.

HOBB.

Come Rosalind, O come, for without thee What pleasure can the country have for me?

Come Rosalind, O come; my brinded kine, My snowy sheep, my farm and all is thine.

LANG.

Come Rosalind, O come; here shady bowers.

Here are cool fountains, and here springing flowers.

Come Rosalind; here ever let us stay, And sweetly waste our live-long time away.

Our other pastoral writer in expressing the same thought, deviates into downright poetry.

STREPHON.

In spring the fields, in autumn hills I love, At morn the plains, at noon the shady grove, But Delia always; forc'd from Delia's sight, Nor plains at morn, nor groves at noon delight.

DAPHNE.

Sylvia's like autumn ripe, yet mild as May, More bright than noon, yet fresh as early day; Ev'n spring displeases when she shines not here: But blest with her, 'tis spring throughout the year.

In the first of these authors, two shepherds thus innocently describe the behaviour of their mistresses.

HOBB.

As Marian bath'd, by chance I pa.s.sed by; She blush'd, and at me cast a side-long eye: Then swift beneath, the crystal waves she tried, Her beauteous form, but all in vain, to hide.

LANG.

As I to cool me bath'd one sultry day, Fond Lydia lurking in the sedges lay, The woman laugh'd, and seem'd in haste to fly; Yet often stopp'd, and often turn'd her eye.

The other modern (who it must be confess'd has a knack at versifying) has it as follows,

STREPHON.