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of metaphors, all of them elegant, and well preserved. Whether these 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 subject for me to enlarge upon, Let me rather add an entertaining anecdote. When Guido and Domenichino had each of them painted a picture in the church of Saint Andrew, Annibal Carrache, their master, was pressed to declare which of his two pupils had excelled. The picture of Guido represented Saint Andrew on his knees before the cross; that of Domenichino represented the flagellation of the same apostle. Both of them in their different kinds were capital pieces, and were painted in fresco, opposite each other, to eternize, as it wère, their rivalship and contention. "Guido (said Carrache) has performed as a master, and Domenichino as a scholar. But (added he) the work of the scholar is more valuable than that of the master." In truth, one may perceive faults in the pictures of Domenichino that Guido has avoided; but then there are noble strokes not to be found in that of his rival. It was easy to discern a genius that promised

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promised to produce beauties, to which the sweet, the gentle and the graceful Guido would never aspire.

The last piece that belongs to this section, is the ODE entitled THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL, written in imitation of the well known sonnet of Hadrian, addressed to his departing spirit; concerning which it was our author's judicious opinion, that the diminutive epithets with which it abounds, such as Vagula, Blandula, were by no means expressions of levity and indifference, but rather of endearment, of tenderness and concern. This ode was written, we find, at the desire of Steele; and our poet, in a letter to him on that occasion, says, "You have it, as Cowley calls it, just warm from the brain; it came to me the first moment I waked this morning; yet you'll see it was not so absolutely inspiration, but that I had in my head not only the verses of Hadrian, but the fine fragment of Sappho."

It

* In Longinus, sect. 10. quoted by him, as a model of that Sublime which combines together many various and opposite passions and sensations, “ Ινα μη ἐν τι παθος φαινῆται, παθων δε

ΣΥΝΟΔΟΣ.”

It is possible, however, that our author might have had another composition in his head, besides those he here refers to; for there is a close and surprising resemblance* between this ode of POPE, and one of an obscure and forgotten rhymer of the age of Charles the Second, namely, Thomas Flatman; from whose dunghill, as well as from the dregs of † Crashaw, of Carew, of Herbert, and others, (for it is well known he was a great reader of all those poets,) POPE has very judiciously collected gold. And the following stanza is perhaps the only valuable one Flatman has produced :

When on my sick bed I languish,
Full of sorrow, full of anguish,
Fainting, gasping, trembling, crying,
Panting, groaning, speechless, dying;
Methinks I hear some gentle spirit say,
Be not fearful, come away!

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* See THE ADVENTURER, vol. II. 2d ed. p. 230.

published 1753.

The

+ Crashaw has very well translated the Dies Iræ, to which translation Roscommon is much indebted, in his Poem on the Day of Judgment.

Of whom says Lord Rochester,

Not

The third and fourth lines are eminently good and pathetic, and the climax well preserved; the very turn of them is closely copied by POPE; as is likewise the striking circumstance of the dying. man's imagining he hears a voice calling him away:

Vital spark of heavenly flame,
Quit, O quit, this mortal frame;
Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying;
O the pain, the bliss of dying!
Hark! they whisper! angels say,
Sister spirit, come away!

I am sensible of the difficulty of distinguishing resemblances from thefts; and well know, that a want of seeming originality arises frequently, not from a barrenness and timidity of genius, but from invincible necessity, and the nature of things that the works of those who profess an art, whose essence is imitation, must needs be stamped with a close resemblance to each other, since the objects material or animate, extraneous

or

Not that slow drudge in swift Pindaric strains,
Flatman, who Cowley imitates with pains,
And rides a jaded muse, whipt, with loose reins.

or internal, which they all imitate, lie equally open to the observation of all, and are perfectly similar. Descriptions, therefore, that are faithful and just, MUST BE UNIFORM AND ALIKE: the first copier may be, perhaps, entitled to the praise of priority; but a succeeding one ought not certainly to be condemned for plagiarism.

These general observations, however true, do not, I think, extend to the case before us; because not only the thoughts, but even the words, are copied; and because the images, especially the last, are such as are not immediately impressed by sensible objects, and which, therefore, on account of their SINGULARITY, did not lie in common for any poet to seize. Let us, however, moderate the matter, and say, what, perhaps, is the real fact, that POPE fell into the thoughts of Flatman unawares, and without design; and having formerly read him, imperceptibly adopted this passage, even without knowing that he had borrowed it. That this will frequently happen, is evident from the following curious particulars related by Menage, which, because much has been said of late on this head by many writers of criticism,

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