It is impossible to read this epitaph without being animated to bear the evils of life with constancy, and to support the dignity of human nature under the most pressing afflictions, both by the example of the heroine, whose grave we behold, and the prospect of that state in which, to use the language of the inspired writers, "The poor cease from their labours, and the 66 weary be at rest."

The other is upon Epictetus, the Stoic Philosopher.

Δελα Επικτητα γενόμην, και ζωμ αναπηρ
Και πενίην Ιρω, και φιλῷ ̓Αθανατοις.

Servus Epictetus, mutilatus corpore vixi
Pauperieque Irus, curaque prima Deum.

"Epictetus, who lies here, was a slave and a cripple, poor as the beggar in the proverb, and the favourite of Heaven."

In this distich is comprised the noblest panegyric, and the most important instruction. We may learn from it that virtue is impracticable in no condition, since Epictetus could recommend himself to the regard of Heaven, amidst the temptations of poverty and slavery slavery, which has always been found so destructive to virtue, that in many languages a slave and a thief are expressed by the same word. And we may be likewise admonished by it, not to lay any stress on a man's outward circumstances, in making an estimate of his real value, since Epictetus, the beggar, the cripple and the slave, was the favourite of Heaven,

ON THE

EPITAPHS

WRITTEN BT POPE.

EVERY art is best taught by example. Nothing contributes more to the cultivation of propriety than remarks on the works of those who have most excelled. I shall therefore endeavour to entertain the young students in poetry, with an examination of Pope's Epitaphs.

To define an epitaph is useless; every one knows that it is an inscription on a tomb. An Epitaph, therefore, implies no particular character of writing, but may be composed in verse or prose. It is indeed commonly panegyrical, because we are seldom distinguished with a stone, but by our friends; but it has no rule to restrain or modify it, except this, that it ought not to be longer than common beholders may be expected to have leisure and patience to peruse.

I.

On CHARLES Earl of Dorset, in the Church of Wythyham, in Sussex.

DORSET, the grace of courts, the muses pride,
Patron of arts, and judge of nature, dy'd.
The scourge of pride, tho' sanctified or great,
Of fops in learning, and of knaves in state;
Yet soft his nature, tho' severe his lay,
His anger moral, and his wisdom gay.

Blest satyrist! who touch'd the mean so true,
As show'd, vice had his hate and pity too.
Blest courtier! who could king and country please,
Yet sacred keep his friendships, and his ease.
Blest peer! his great forefathers ev'ry grace
Reflecting, and reflected on his race;

Where other Buckhursts, other Dorsets shine,
And patriots still, or poets, deck the line.

The first distich of this Epitaph contains a kind of information which few would want, that the man for whom the tomb was erected, died. There are indeed some qualities worthy of praise ascribed to the dead, but none that were likely to exempt him from the lot of man, or incline us much to wonder that he should die. What is meant by judge of nature, is not easy to say. Nature is not the object of human judgment, for it is vain to judge where we cannot alter. If by nature is meant, what is commonly called nature by the critics, a just representation of things really existing, and actions really performed, nature cannot be properly opposed to art; nature being, in this sense, only the best effect of art.

The scourge of pride

Of this couplet, the second line is not, what is intended, an illustration of the former. Pride in the great, is indeed well enough connected with knaves in state, though knaves is a word too ludicrous and light; but the mention of sanctified pride will not lead the thoughts to fops in learning, but rather to some species of tyranny or oppression, something more gloomy and more formidable than foppery.

Yet soft his nature

This is a high compliment, but was not first be

stowed on Dorset by Pope. tremely beautiful.

Blest satyrist

The next verse is ex

In this distich is another line of which Pope was not the author. I do not mean to blame these imitations with much harshness: in long performances they are scarcely to be avoided, and in slender they may be indulged, because the train of the composition may naturally involve them, or the scantiness of the subject allow little choice. However, what is borrowed is not to be enjoyed as our own, and it is the business of critical justice to give every bird of the muses his proper feather.

Blest courtier

Whether a courtier can be properly commended for keeping his ease sacred may perhaps be disputable. To please king and country, without sacrificing friendship to any change of times, was a very uncommon instance of prudence or felicity, and deserved to be kept separate from so poor a commendation as care of this ease. I wish our poets would attend a little more accurately to the use of the word sacred, which surely should never be applied in a serious composition, but where some reference may be made to a higher being, or where some duty is exacted or implied. A man may keep his friendship sacred, because promises of friendship are very awful ties; but methinks he cannot, but in a burlesque sense, be said to keep his ease sacred.

Blest peer

The blessing ascribed to the peer has no connection with his peerage; they might happen to any oVOL. II.

R