and
the philosopher to reason.

If Prior's poetry be generally considered, his praise will be that of
correctness and industry, rather than of compass of comprehension, or
activity of fancy. He never made any effort of invention: his greater
pieces are only tissues of common thoughts; and his smaller, which
consist of light images, or single conceits, are not always his own. I
have traced him among the French epigrammatists, and have been informed
that he poached for prey among obscure authors. The Thief and the
Cordelier is, I suppose, generally considered as an original production;
with how much justice this epigram may tell, which was written by
Georgius Sabinus, a poet now little known or read, though once the
friend of Luther and Melancthon.

De Sacerdote Furem consolante.

Quidam sacrificus furem comitatus euntem
Huc ubi dat sontes carnificina neci,
Ne sis moestus, ait; summi conviva Tonantis
Jam cum coelitibus (si modo credis) eris.
Ille gemens, si vera mihi solatia praebes,
Hospes apud superos sis meus oro, refert.
Sacrificus contra; mihi non convivia fas est
Ducere, jejunans hac edo luce nihil.

What he has valuable he owes to his diligence and his judgment. His
diligence has justly placed him amongst the most correct of the English
poets; and he was one of the first that resolutely endeavoured at
correctness. He never sacrifices accuracy to haste, nor indulges
himself in contemptuous negligence, or impatient idleness; he has no
careless lines, or entangled sentiments; his words are nicely selected,
and his thoughts fully expanded. If this part of his character suffers
any abatement, it must be from the disproportion of his rhymes, which
have not always sufficient consonance, and from the admission of broken
lines into his Solomon; but, perhaps, he thought, like Cowley, that
hemistichs ought to be admitted into heroick poetry[13].

He had, apparently, such rectitude of judgment as secured him from every
thing that approached to the ridiculous or absurd; but as laws operate
in civil agency not to the excitement of virtue, but the repression of
wickedness, so judgment in the operations of intellect can hinder
faults, but not produce excellence. Prior is never low, nor very often
sublime. It is said by Longinus of Euripides, that he forces himself
sometimes into grandeur by violence of effort, as the lion kindles his
fury by the lashes of his own tail. Wha