of the ancient poets are so deservedly admired, yet did his fancy never run away with his reason, but was always guided by a superior judgment. The harmony of his verse is exquisite. Cowley's Pindaric odes are, indeed, wrote with great strength and spirit, but they want that harmony of numbers which Horace requires as essential to a good poem. In the last stanza of this ode Mr. Hughes proved a true prophet of the glories that attended the reign of Queen Anne.

The Translation of the third ode of the third book of Horace, and the Paraphrase of the twenty-second ode of the first book, were both wrote when our Author was very young, and the latter of them was his first poetical essay which appeared in print.

The Paraphrase on the sixteenth cde of the second book of Horace was wrote in 1702; in which year Mr. Hughes, in a letter to a friend, assigned the reasons why he thought the odes of Horace fitter to be paraphrased than translated; and as the justness of his sentiments seems since confirmed by many unsuce cessful attempts, I believe it will be entertaining to the reader, though intended only for the gentleman to whom it was originally addressed. There is a na→ tive simplicity in writings of this kind which always gives pleasure to persons of good taste. This letter is dated December 26, 1702, and is to the following purpose: "I am sorry I could not wait on you yes

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terday, as I intended; when I see you next you *shall know the reason; in the mean-time I send this

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"to beg your pardon, and have inclosed what I spoke "to you of That incomparable ode which Horace "has addressed to his friend Grosphus I have chosen "to present to one of the best of my friends, in as "good an English dress as I am capable of giving it. "The original is one of those pieces in which Horace " has shewn himself so great a master of human life, " and given us at once a view of his good sense and "good humour. And this address is usual to him; for "in the gravest of his odes he does not seem to make "his remarks on life like a pedant, to make you out "of love with it, or to fright you from pleasure, but "to invite you to the true enjoyment of it; and thus "far he was certainly in the right, tho' in the choice "of his pleasures he was often irregular. In this, as "well as in all other respects, his moral odes infinite"ly exceed the chorusses in Seneca's tragedies; for in "the first you have the free and unaffected morality "of a gentleman, but in the latter the splenetic air of

a severe Stoic. This ode has been in English before "more than once, but whether well or ill translated "I leave others to judge. I shall only say, that I have "seen very few translations of Horace that I can be "pleased with, for most have copied only his thoughts, "without any thing of his diction, which is his prin"cipal beauty: it is that vivacity in his style, and "particularly in his epithets, which Petronius Arbi❝ter calls a curiosa felicitas, and in which no man, in "my opinion, resembled him so much as Petronius

"himself, whose prose is as inimitable as Horace's 66 poetry. Indeed, in the time of Pope Urban VIII. "who was a poet himself, Casimire, a Polander and 66 a Jesuit, wrote several odes in imitation of Horace, " in which there appears a good genius; but his La"tin is not pure; and besides the disadvantage of "writing in a dead language, he is defective in judg"ment, and his fancy is not always well governed. "Those who have su ceeded best in their at empts on "Horace in English have chosen the way of para" phrase as the most proper, for his sense is so close "wrought, that it would appear stiff and obscure in a "literal translation, if such a one could be made; and "there are many good hints in him worth the pursu "ing. None have attempted to copy his numbers; "for the Pindaric, which seems the fittest for us, and

gives us a greater liberty and variety, does not an"swer the Latin measures; yet I remember I once saw an attempt to write English Sapphics, but it 66 never was printed; and Sir Philip Sydney has com66 posed hexameters and other verses after the Latin

measure, but they are unnatural to our language, "for this reason chiefly, because we abound so much "in monosyllables. The Sapphic measure is indeed "very musical, and what Horace seems best to have "practised; but methinks it is too soft, and fit only "to be employed on love, and pleasant easy subjects: "it seems too much confined, like the usual measure "of our songs; and the lofty sense of some of his odes

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❝is above it. Our English Pindaric is undoubtedly more majestical, if it be well contrived, and the va"rious length and shortness of the lines, as well as "the mixt..re and return of the rhyme, well chosen ; "and therefore, as I said before, it is the most proper "for such odes as have any thing of the sublime in "them. I wonder Horace did not introduce some"thing like it into his language, being so great an "admirer of Pindar, and having in other respects imi"tated him so finely, notwithstanding his declaration, "Pindarum quisqus, &c. that Pindar was inimitable; " in which he commends him in these words,

Laurea donandus Apollinari,
"Sen per audaces nova dithyrambos
"Verba devolvit, numerisque fertur
Lege solutis."

"thus translated by Mr. Cowley:

So P-ndar does new words and figures rǝll
Down his impetuous dithyrambic ride,
"Which in no channel deigns t' abide,

Which neither banks nor dikes control."

Lib. iv. Ode 2.

"But this does not answer to the numeris lege solutis, "by which Horace means only that Pindar's nun"bers were unlimited, and not confined to any set "measure, in those odes that were called Dithyram"bic, which had the most heat and fury, being first "invented in honour of Bacchus and methinks Ho"race might sometimes have attempted this dithy"rambic measure, especially in that ode, Quo me, "Bacche, rapis, &c.

"But to return to the ode which I have here en"deavoured to imitate. I have taken a liberty in the "paraphrase; the first stanza is added, and a simile or "two, but nothing more than what is agreeable to "his sense, and what I thought would make him ap66 pear to the best advantage. Such as it is, Sir, I sub"mit it entirely to your judgment, since it was first "attempted for your pleasure. It is upon an agree"able subject, viz. Tranquillity, and if it fails giving "you any entertainment, I will readily acknowledge "it to be my own fault; for I know you to be master "of so much sense, so good a taste, and such just no"tions of human life, that I am sure Horace must "please you, if he be not murdered in an ill trans"lation. You may perceive, Sir, that as I. cannot "think the time long which I spend in your company, 66 so neither can I think a letter long which I am 'writing to you; but I may be tempted to trespass upon you in one as well as the other; therefore I "will do as persons should after a tedious visit, use a "short ceremony, and withdraw, &c.

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I am, &c.

JOHN HUGHES.

"

In 1703 our Author's Ode on Music was performed at Stationers' Hall; and he afterwards wrote Six Cantatas, which were set to music by Dr. Pepusch. They were wrote before introducing the Italian operas on