II.

Nor any partial private end

Such reverence to the public bears,
Nor any passion, Virtue's friend,
So like to Virtue's self appears.

III.

For who in glory can delight,

Without delight in virtuous deeds? What man a charming voice can slight, Who courts the echo that succeeds?

IV.

But not the echo or the voice

More, than on virtue, praise depends;
To which, of course, its real price
The judgment of the praiser tends.

V.

If praise, then, with religious awe

From the sole perfect Judge be sought,

A nobler aim, a purer law,

Nor priest, nor bard, nor sage hath taught;

VI.

With which in character the same,

Though in an humbler sphere it lies,

I count that soul of human fame

The suffrage of the good and wise."

Thus, too, in his Ode on hearing a sermon preached against Glory:

"If to spurn at noble praise

Be the passport to thy heaven,
Follow thou those gloomy ways;
No such law to me was given.

Nor, I trust, shall I deplore me,
Faring like my friends before me,
Nor a holier place desire,

Than TIMOLEON's arms acquire,

And TULLY's curule chair, and MILTON's golden lyre."

Akenside indulged his natural taste for poetry very early; and, at the age of sixteen, sent to the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine a poem, written after the manner of Spenser, entitled the VIRTUOSO; the idea of which seems to have been taken from the subjoined passage of Shaftesbury's Characteristics*.

* "Hitherto there can lie no ridicule, nor the least scope for satiric wit or raillery. But when we push this virtuoso character a little further, and lead our polished gentleman into more nice researches; when from the view of mankind and their affairs, our speculative genius, and minute examiner of nature's works, proceeds with equal or perhaps superior zeal, in the contemplation of the insect life, the conveniences, habitations, and economy of a race of shell-fish; when he has erected a cabinet in due form, and made it the real pattern of his mind, replete with the same trash and trumpery

This poem is not only curious, as a juvenile production, but as it serves to show how early the mind of Akenside was impregnated with the sentiments of that once celebrated writer.

Akenside did not think proper to republish this poem in the collection of his works; and yet, there is not one stanza, of which he needed to have been, in the slightest degree, ashamed. Indeed, it is a very remarkable poem for so young a person. I shall quote the first and last stanzas, with its motto from Persius:

Videmus

Nugari solitos.

"Whilom by silver Thames' gentle stream,

In London town there dwelt a subtile wight;
A wight of mickle wealth, and mickle fame,
Book-learn'd and quaint; a VIRTUOSO hight.
Uncommon things and rare were his delight;
From musings deep his brain ne'er gotten ease;
Nor ceasen he from study day or night;

Until (advancing onwards by degrees)

He knew whatever breeds on earth, on air, or seas."

of correspondent empty notions and chimerical conceits; he then, indeed, becomes the subject of sufficient raillery, and is made the jest of common conversations."-Characteristics, vol. iii. p. 156. Ed. 1737.

"The wight, whose brain this phantom's * power doth fill,
On whom she doth, with constant care, attend,
Will for a dreadful giant take a mill †,

Or a grand palace in a hogstye find ‡;
(From her dire influence ME may Heav'n defend!)
All things with vitiated sight he spies;
Neglects his family, forgets his friend;
Seeks painted trifles and fantastic toys;
And eagerly pursues imaginary joys."

Akenside seems to have entertained a particular contempt for virtuosos; for he again. makes that order of character a subject for ridicule in the third book of his principal poem.

"Behold yon mystic form,

Bedeck'd with feathers, insects, weeds, and shells!

Not with intenser view, the Samian sage

Bent his fixt eye on heaven's intenser fires,

When first the order of that radiant scene
Swell'd his exulting thought, than this surveys
A muckworm's entrails, or a spider's fang."

In the same year (viz. 1737) Akenside published, in the same miscellany, a Rhapsody on the miseries of a Poet, born to a low estate. This poem, as a whole, is scarcely worthy of preservation; but as

* Phantasy's.

+ Alluding to a passage in Don Quixote; about this time translated into English.

From a line in Machiavelli's Asino.

there are some passages, indicative of future excellence, I shall quote them.

"Of all the various lots around the ball,
Which Fate to man distributes, absolute,
Avert, ye Gods! that of the Muses' son,
Cursed with dire poverty. Poor, hungry wretch!
What shall he do for life? He cannot work
With manual labour. Shall those sacred hands,
That brought the counsels of the Gods to light,
Shall that inspired tongue, which every muse
Has touched divine, to charm the sons of men,
These hallow'd orgies-these! be prostitute
To the vile service of some fool in power,
All his behests submissive to perform,
Howe'er to him ungrateful? Oh! he scorns

Th' ignoble thought!"

The following passage, no doubt, alludes to an order of persons, with whom the poet was, at this time, compelled occasionally to associate.

“But 'tis in vain to rave at destiny.

Here he must rest; and brook the best he can ;
To live remote from grandeur, learning, wit,

Immured among th' ignoble, vulgar herd

Of lowest intellect; whose stupid souls
But half inform their bodies."

The succeeding lines allude to the various descriptions of poetry, in a manner very appropriate and concise.