The fhepherd's wish, that in like manner as he purposes to lament his friend, he may be lamented by fome other, is truly pathetick. The picture is lively, and the fentiment interefting: we fee a person paffing by a tomb, and suddenly turning to render his tribute of respect to the deceased, and our minds are foothed with the idea of this supposed inftance of repayment of funeral eulogy. Gray has beautifully touch'd this natural circumstance in his church-yard elegy:

For thee, who mindful of the unhonour'd dead,
Doft in thefe lines their artless tale relate;
If chance by lonely contemplation led,
Some kindred spirit fhall inquire thy fate :
Haply, fome hoary-headed swain may say, &c.

• When Cowley,' fays Dr. Johnson, 'tells of Hervey, that they studied together, it is easy to fuppofe how much 'he must miss the companion of his • labours,

• labours, and the partner of his difcoveries; but what image of tenderness ⚫ can be excited by thefe lines,' "We "drove afield," &c ? We know that

they never drove afield, and that they • had no flocks to batten; and though it be allowed that the representation ⚫ may be allegorical, the true meaning is fo uncertain and remote, that it is never fought, because it cannot be ⚫ known when it is found.'

Cowley speaks of Hervey in propria perfona, Milton is pro tempore a rustick poet; one therefore must naturally draw his images from the business of the study, and the other from the business of the field. It seems not very easy to difcover what idea of tenderness is excited by Cowley, the collegian, in his mention of the literary occupations of his fellow-ftudent, which is not also excited by Milton, the fuppofed fhepherd, in his mention of the rural occupations of

his

his field companion. Whatever there is of pathos in either, results from the recollection of friendship terminated by death.* Milton meant only to give his paftoral scene a stronger appearance of reality, by defcending to the particulars of " 'driving afield," &c.

There

is no reason to believe that his literal sense in these respects had any allegorical one, analogous or parallel; confequently there is no occafion to guess what it could be.

ง.

32.

Mean while the rural ditties were not mute, Temper'd to the oaten flute;

Rough fatyrs danc'd, and fauns with cloven

heel;

The paffage of Cowley, above hinted at, is this:

Say, for ye faw us ye immortal lights,

How oft unwearied have we pass'd the nights?
"Till the Ledean ftars, fo fam'd for love,

Wonder'd at us from above.

We spent them not in lufts, or toys, or wine,
But fearch of deep philofophy,

Wit, eloquence, and poetry;

Arts which I lov'd, for they, my friend, were thine.

From

From the glad found would not be abfent long,
And old Damætas lov'd to hear our fong.

Dr. Johnson has cenfured this paffage, and it must be acknowledged to be indefenfible. The mind revolts from fuch a pofitive introduction of imaginary beings. While we acquiefce in the pastoral idea in general, we start at this particular and violent extenfion of it. Satyrs and fauns can have no business on English ground.

V. 37. But O the heavy change, now thou art gone, Now thou art gone, and never must return! Thee fhepherd, thee the woods and defart caves, With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'er

grown,

And all their echoes mourn.

The willow and the hazel copfes green,

Shall now no more be seen,

Fanning their joyous leaves to thy foft lays.

As killing as the canker to the rose,

Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze;

Or frofts to flowers that their gay wardrobe

wear,

When firft the white-thorn blows;

Such Lycidas thy loss to shepherd's ear.

The

The foregoing lines are remarkable for a peculiar languid melody, well fuited to their fubject; they feem indeed the proper language of complaint. The poetical licence by which fenfe is attributed to inanimate exiftence, fhould be indulged with great caution: there are fome inftances in which it pleases, and there are others in which it difgufts. The more important the circumstances in which it is ufed, the better it fucceeds. On trivial occafions, if it is not designedly burlesque, it will be seriously ridiculous. Rural fcenes may perhaps be properly faid to mourn, because a person who was wont to frequent them is deceased but not because a fhepherdefs frowns on her lover, or a lady lofes her lap-dog. Milton, in the above quotation, has used this liberty to great advantage. Simplicity, indeed, is a little violat