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"Nam quamquam neque Tarpeias bellator ad acres
Ibis ovans, procul augusto comitante Senatu,
Murali neque tormento Mavortia rumpes
Moenia, nec clusas perrumpes ariete portas:
At raucum tonitru, quo fractus dissilit orbis
Terrarum pontusque tuum est. Tu, ardentibus astris
Transfixum, multo percurris fulmine mundum.
At Boreas tibi servit, at igni armatus & auro
Orion. At Pleiades, septemque Triones,
Nocte atra, sedesque tuas & limina servant.
At vero quacunque pedum vestigia figes,
At tua perculsi cessabunt nomina morbi,
Et cœco Pluton animas dimittet Averno.
At te, terribilis lethi Ditisque potentem,
Aërias equitantem auras, nubesque secantem,
Circum acies fusa aligerûm, atque exercitus omnis
Cœlorum, qui nascenti se junxerat ante,
Eterna evectum Capitoli in sede locabit.
Excipietque iterum venientem, & nube serena
Fulgentem, nostrosque humeros, nostrosque lacertos.
Tum, simul horrisono fremitu tua buccina Gangen
Percurret gelidamque Helicen, mors tota remittet
Pallentes populos, & dulci luce carentés.

Salve autor, salve omnipotens, qui sanguine nobis
Effuso patriam peperisti, & munera vitæ.
Salve ingens lethi domitor: quem corpore toto,
Tertia lux nigris venientem excepit ab umbris.
Continuo fractam senserunt omnia mortem,
Jamque triumphatum penitus penitusque subactum
Audacem colubrum, morti qui vincula primus
Laxavit, totumque Erebo dimisit in orbem.

Hinc, lethi immemores, venturo incumbimus ævo,
Et vitæ egressi tenebris, donamur Olympo." p. 330.

His minor poems present a variety of metres and subjects, through part of which alone we have made our way—a book of satires in iambic metre, several books of elegies, poems on the nuptials of Grotius, the death of Turnebus, &c. &c. &c. The following ode is a pleasing imitation of Horace.

Ad Reinerum Bontium, amicorum suavissimum, hospitem suum, dis-
cessurus: invidiam pasci in vivos, mortuis
parcere.

"Jam ter benignum ver aperit caput,
Et ter nivali sidere Jupiter

Decussit arbustis honorem,

Et viridem foliis juventam;

Ex quo beatis otia ducimus
Inscripta Musis, optime Reineri,
Et dura curarum perosi, et
Carnifices animi dolores.
Sæpe innocenti lætitia diem
Et non severi munera Liberi
Traxisse tecum, sæpe totas
Dulcibus eloquiis recordor
Junxisse noctes; candidus ingenî,
Et si quam amica fata dabunt viam,
Nec inclytæ pulchræque laudis,
Nec decoris moriturus expers.
Sed livor altis ceu comes additus
Incumbit ausis, nec timet igneas
Tentare victurasque mentes,
Dum superest, patiturque cerni
Mortale corpus. Mox ubi corpori
Tardo superstes spiritus, æthera
Perrupit, & victrix sepulchri
Calcat humum, populosque fama
Volat per omnes; stat procul & premit
Os turpe vulgus: nec tumulum petit,
Nec tangit æternos honores,

Et cinerem prope consecratum,
Favetque rapto. Sic Semeles puer
Sævam Lycurgi sustinuit manum;
Sic magnus Alceides, supremum
Comperit invidiam domari

Non ante bustum. Mors rabiem domat,
Redditque seris præmia manibus

Non ante concessura vivo

Gloria, quod dabit interempto.

Hic ordo rerum est. Non ego quem vides, Amice Bonti, dedecus aut pudor

Egisse sub tectis iisdem

Arguar, aut male notus hospes.
Seu me beatum Socraticæ ferent
Vixisse chartæ, seu tibi credita
Stagira, seu duri Cleanthis
Porticus, & rigidi Catonis :
Seu diva Golgon quæ colit & Paphon,
Olim juventæ pars melior meæ,
Transmittet in seros nepotes
Innocuum lepidumque nomen;
Seu quicquid olim moliar arduum,

cally.

Phoebi sacerdos immeritus mori:
Nec Tænarum post fata & urnam,
Nec tacitum subiturus amnem.
Non si trecentis invida sibilis
Attollat ora imbellis inertia,
Quam vertere in se cogit arma
Impatiens popularis auræ
Laudumque virtus; consilii tenax,
Solamque honesti currere semitam
Persuasa: nec cessura retro
Plebis ad arbitrium volentis.
At tu, nihil quo candidius polum,
Pulchramque Phoebi conspicit orbitam,
Quem fata disjungunt dolentem,
Pectore constituas amicum.
Nec auspicati fœderis immemor,
Ventis amorem trade rapacibus,
Quem posteri discent, nec uno
Fama loquax celebrabit ævo.
Hac lege, mensam sæpe sub ultimam,
Cum vina regnant, totaque mens patet,

Infunde crateræ capaci

Dulcis amicitiæ liquorem.

The preceding ode, in praise of Venice, begins majesti

"Diva, quam cœlo generatus alto

Trous Antenor, patriæ superstes

Fixit, æternamque dedit profundo in-
cumbere ponto."

The following description of Hugo Grotius's first love may amuse the reader.

"Ille inscius ora,

Et risus faciles, nec duram in virgine formam,
Diligit, incipiens, & adhuc securus amorum;
Nollet abesse tamen. Batavis discedere certa est
Finibus, & rursus patrias defurtur in oras.
Aspicit absentem, totusque in imagine formæ
Vertitur, & ventos animo metitur & undas.
Paulatim gemitus, paulatim vota sequuntur,

Et quicquid plebs læsa solet. Mox carmina manant,
Et doctæ lachrimæ: lachrimæ de vulnere manant,
Victurusque dolor. Sic quondam Cous & Umber,

Et si quem Veneri læsum dilexit Apollo,
Quisque suas seros lachrimas dimisit in annos.
Ergo omnes Mariæ complentur nomine ceræ,
Felicem tabulæ, Mariam chartæque loquuntur.
Cœperat infelix majores volvere curas,

Et Tragicos tentare modos: ter pulpita Cypris
Fregit, & audaces fluxerunt crinibus hydri,
Delapsisque hederis frontem mitissima myrtus
Circuit, & Paphiæ velarunt tempora vittæ.
Ah quoties mœstos ad læta negocia vultus
Transtulit, & cæcos celando prodidit ignes,
Ardoresque suos turbataque civibus ora,
Et gestus quos suasit Amor! jam displicet illi
Si quæ visa fuit reliquis præstantior olim,
Et formæ subeunt fastidia. Vota relinquunt
Finitimas urbes, patriæque excedit imago

Sensibus attonitis. Pelago mens errat, & undæ
Fluctibus abripitur, propriosque in pectore versat.”

We conclude with a short "elegia," and a copy of Greek verses on a whimsical subject.

"Divini saltus, & saltibus æmula ripa,

Fessarum sedes humida Naïadum,
Et lauri fragiles, & quæ superimpendentes
Solis oberrantes excipitis radios
Intonsæ myrti; quæque alto è culmine lapsa
Innocuo serpis murmure, lenis aqua;
Heinsius has vobis, si quicquam dulce putatis,
Exuvias vestris pendit ab arboribus,

Hanc zonam, strophiumque, laboratamque corollam,
Quam mea lux manibus texuit ipsa suis,
Collapsam de temporibus, cum forte, sub illa

Arbore, jucundis compositam violis

Grata quies blando deceperat illice vento,
Et nunquam tacitæ garrulus humor aquæ.
Quam Zephyrus lentis pendentem assibilet alis,
Et tepidis tingat humida nox lachrymis,
Mane novo: cum sideribus jam pene peractis
Lucifer Eoo fulgurat in thalamo.

Quod si forte suos huc verterit improba vultus,
Atque iterum vestris occubet in foliis,
Dulci victa sopore, & euntis murmure rivi;
Depositum præsto sentiat esse suum..

Vos eritis testes, Zephyrus pater, auraque fontis.
Perfidiæ testes non decet esse Deos."

"In pulices & culices à se interfectos, cum ab iis totam noctem Swindrechti exagitatus esset.

Ενθάδε κωνώπεσσιν ὅλὴν τὴν νύκτα παλαίων
Ψύλλαις τ ̓ ἀγχιμάχοις εἶδέ ποθ ̓ Εἱνσιάδης·
Αὐτὰς ἀνισάμενος συγερῆς ἐξ ὄρθριος ευνῆς,
Πολλὲς εὗρεν ἑῇ χειρὶ κατακταμένες.

Περσεφόνη, σὺ δὲ δίξαι ἀνάρσια φύλα καμόντων,
Νυκτιλάλης, ὕπνων ἡμετέρων φθορέας."

ART. V. Poems, by the Rev. James Hurdis, D. D. late Fellow of Magdalen College, and Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford*.

The appearance of Cowper in English poetry, was one of those literary phenomena which betoken the approach of a new age. The taste of the public mind, and the employment of the poetical talent of Britain, had for some time been gradually, and almost unconsciously, from causes upon which we will not here speculate, assuming a new direction; old tastes and prepossessions were melting away; and a poet of eminent abilities only was wanting, to break down formally the barriers of prejudice, and to sign, as it were, the warrant by which coming geniuses might be authorised to develope themselves in a different manner from their predecessors. Cowper has perhaps as good a title as any other writer to the distinction mentioned. His great contemporary Burns may have had much more eventual influence on the poetry of the succeeding generation; but that of Cowper was more ostensible, and, if we may so speak, more palpable. He was not the originator of the present age of poetry; but he was the morning-star which preceded its rising. The delightful freedom of his manner, so acceptable to those who had long been accustomed to a poetical school of which the radical fault was constraint; his noble and tender morality; his fervent piety; his glowing and well expressed patriotism; his descriptions, unparalleled in vividness and accuracy since Thomson; his playful humour, and his powerful satire; the skilful construction of his verse, at least in The Task, and the refreshing variety of that fascinating poem,-altogether conspired to render him highly popular, both among the multitude of common readers, and among

Our extracts are made from a collected edition of his works, published at the Oxford University Press.

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