le. Waller, tho' better than
Voiture, was not yet a finished poet. The graces breathe in such of
Waller's works as are wrote in a tender strain; but then they are
languid thro' negligence, and often disfigured with false thoughts.
The English had not at this time attained the art of correct writing;
but his serious compositions exhibit a strength and vigour, which
could not have been expected from the softness and effeminacy of his
other pieces.'

The anonymous author of the preface to the second part of our author's
poems, printed in the year 1690, has given his character at large, and
tells us; 'That Waller is a name that carries every thing in it that
is either great, or graceful in poetry. He was indeed the parent of
English verse, and the first who shewed us our tongue had beauty and
numbers in it. The tongue came into his hands like a rough diamond; he
polished it first, and to that degree, that artists since have admired
the workmanship without pretending to mend it. He undoubtedly stands
first in the list of refiners; and for ought I know the last too; for
I question whether in Charles II's reign; the English did not come to
its full perfection, and whether it had not had its Augustan age, as
well as the Latin.' Thus far this anonymous author. If I may be
permitted to give my opinion in so delicate a point as the reputation
of Waller, I shall take the liberty to observe, that had he, in place
of preceding, succeeded those great wits who flourished in the reign
of Charles II, he could never have rose to such great reputation, nor
would have deserved it: No small honour is due to him for the harmony
which he introduced, but upon that chiefly does his reputation stand.
He certainly is sometimes languid; he was rather a tender than a
violent lover; he has not that force of thinking, that amazing reach
of genius for which Dryden is renowned, and had it been his lot to
have appeared in the reign of Queen Anne, I imagine, he would not have
been ranked above the second class of poets. But be this as it may,
poetry owes him the highest obligations for refining it, and every
succeeding genius will be ready to acknowledge, that by copying
Waller's strains, they have improved their own, and the more they
follow him, the more they please.

Mr. Waller altered the Maid's Tragedy from Fletcher, and translated
the first Act of the Tragedy of Pompey from the French of Corneille.
Mrs. Katharine Philips, in a letter to Sir Charle