ftead of increafing his eftimation with the public, expofed him to the derifion of the wits, and the cenfure of the critics. But none treated him with more severity, than the author of the Dispensary, in the following lines: "Had Wesley never aim'd in verse to please, Mr Wesley was by no means infenfible of the force of the fatire; and there is ftill extant a copy of verfes, in which he has retaliated upon Garth, with great fpirit, for the compliment he fo modeftly pays himself. Two lines have been cited, which are full in point: "Who wonders, he fhould Wefley Codrus call, "Who dares furname himself a Juvenal?" Garth feems indeed to have been upon excellent terms with himfelf, and does al. not appear to have made the proper lowances, in Mr Wesley's case, for the difficulty of the undertaking. Of the many, who have written on extenfive fubjects from fcripture, fcarcely any have fucceeded. Mr Wesley certainly did not; and I know but one that did. fon Samuel, who was really a poet, while he takes notice of his father's piety, acknowledges that he failed. He perifhed in too great an attempt: His "He fung how God, the Saviour, deign'd t'expire, "With Vida's piety, tho' not his fire." And it may be obferved, without any reflection on the merit of Garth, that, had he written a life of Christ, he certainly had loft the fame, which he acquired by his Difpenfary. One may go ftill farther: had he written equally well on each occafion, he would not have been equally fuccefsful, in the opinion of the critics. So great is the difference in the fubjects! But, notwithstanding his want of fuccefs, in this fpecies of compofition, Mr Wesley was by no means a despicable poet. There are feveral of his fmaller pieces, which are excellent; efpecially the Hymn of Eupolis to the Creator. Perhaps I may be fingular; but it has always ftruck me as one of the best pieces, in this kind of measure, in the English language; and I could never read it, without fuch feelings as very few poems have been able to produce. That the reader may judge for himself, and, by way of compenfation to the much injured memory of a worthy man, it is here inferted, as it ftands in the first volume of the Arminian Magazine. THE OCCASION. PART OF A (NEW) DIALOGUE BETWEEN PLATO AND EUPOLIS. (THE REST NOT EXTANT.) EUP. But is it not a little hard, that you should banish all our fraternity from your new commonwealth? What hurt has father Homer done, that you difmifs him among the reft? PLATO. Certainly the blind old gentleman lyes with the best grace in the world. But a lye handfomely told, debauches the taste and morals of a people. Befides, his tales of the gods are intolerable, and derogate, in the highest degree, from the dignity of the divine nature. EUP. But do you really think these faults infeparable from poetry? May not the one fupreme be fung without any intermixture of them? PLATO. I must own, I hardly ever faw any thing of that nature. But I fhall be glad to fee you, or any other, attempt and fucceed in it. On that condition, I will gladly exempt you from the fate of your brother poets. EUP. I am far from pretending to be a ftandard; but I will do the best I can. THE HY M N. "Author of being, fource of light, Grecian or Barbaric name, Thy ftedfaft being, ftill the fame. |