column of boiling water, near mount Hecla, thrown upwards, above ninety feet, by the force of a subterraneous fire.* SECTION It is in a valley in Iceland, about sixty miles from the sea; it is called the fountain of Geiser. Sir Joseph Banks, our great philosophical traveller, had the satisfaction of seeing this wonderful phænomenon. SECTION XIV. AND LAST. OF SOME IMITATIONS OF HORACE, THE MISCELLANIES, EPITAPHS, AND PROSE WORKS. THE seventh epistle of the first book of Horace, and the sixth satire of the second, are here imitated in a style and manner different from the former imitations, in the burlesque and colloquial style and measure of Swift ;* in which our au thor *The following is written in the first leaf of a copy of Stevens's Herodotus, now in the library of Winchester College, in Swift's own hand-writing, and is a literary curiosity, being a specimen of his Latin.--" Judicium de Herodoto post longum tempus relecto. Ctesias mendacissimus Herodotum mendaciorum arguit, exceptis paucissimis, (ut mea fert sententia,) omni modo excusandum. Cæterum diverticulis abundans hic pater historicorum, filum narrationis ad tædium abrumpit. Unde oritur (ut par est) legentibus confusio, et exinde oblivio. Quin et forsan ipsæ narrationes, circumstantiis nimium pro re scatent. Quod ad cætera, hunc scriptorem inter apprimè laudandos censeo, neque Græcis neque barbaris plus æquo faventem aut iniquum; thor has not succeeded, but falls back, as was natural, from the familiar, into his own more high and pompous manner; as in the following lines, v. 125, Perditur hæc inter, &c. Thus in a sea of folly tost, My choicest hours of life are lost; Oh, could I see my country seat! And again at line 189; in the fable of the Mice; Tell how the moon-beam trembling falls, The difference of styles is more perceivable, from the circumstance of their being immediately sub joined iniquum; in orationibus fere brevem, simplicem, nec nimis frequentem. Neque absunt dogmata e quibus eruditus lector prudentiani tam moralem quam civilem haurire poterit."-Swift, in his discourse on the Contests, &c. appears to be well acquainted with Thucydides, Polybius, and Dionys. Halicar. and to have had a considerable knowledge of ancient history. Of all our poets, perhaps, Akenside was the best Greek scholar since Milton. joined to the lighter and less ornamental verses of Swift. The first ode of the fourth book of Horace, is an elegant compliment to Mr. Murray, now Lord Mansfield. And it may be worth observing, that the measure POPE has chosen, is precisely the same that Ben Jonson used in a translation of this very ode, in which are some lines smoother than our old bard's usual strains; p. 268. Then twice a day, in sacred lays, The youths and tender maids shall sing thy praise; Thrice round thy altar with their ivory feet. I cannot forbear adding, that there is much harmony, and ease of versification, in Ben Jonson's ten lyric pieces addressed to Charis, in page 165 of his works. The second stanza of the imitation of part of the ninth ode of Horace, book iv. is well expressed; Tho' Tho' daring Milton sits sublime, POPE seems to speak of Spenser with particular complacency. How much this author was his favourite, will appear from what he said to Mr. Spence; from whose anecdotes this passage is transcribed: "There is something in Spenser that pleases one as strongly in one's old-age, as it did in one's youth: I read the Faery Queen when I was about twelve with a vast deal of delight; and I think it gave me as much when I read it over about a year or two ago." Out of the fourth and following stanza, misled by his love of antithesis, he has formed a trifling epigram: Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Urgentur ignotique longà |