to reflect no great credit on his memory; for many of them are so inexcusably licentious, as to induce a suspicion that the author was but too well practised in the vices of the town and yet it may be said of the book, that it contains the only good poems he ever wrote.

It is true that, for the looseness of his writings, and, if we may judge by them, of his manners, he deserves censure: but, at the same time, it is to be noted, that he was a warm and steady friend, and a lover of such as he thought more worthy than himself; of which last quality, his attachment to Mr. Walton affords the clearest proof.

Nor did it derogate from the character of honest old Izaak, to contract and cherish an intimacy with one who, being of the cavalier party, might have somewhat of the gallant, not to say the rake, in him, and be guilty of some of those practices which it was the employment of Izaak's life and writings to discountenance. Mr. Cotton was both a wit and a scholar; of an open, cheerful, and hospitable temper; endowed with fine talents for conversation, and the courtesy and affability of a gentleman; and was, withal, as great a proficient in the art, as a lover of the recreation, of Angling; these qualities, together with the profound reverence which he uniformly entertained for his father, Walton, could not but endear him to the good old man, whose charitable practice it was, to resolve all the deviations from that rule of conduct which he had prescribed himself, not into vicious inclination, but error.

But notwithstanding this creditable connexion, and the qualities above ascribed to him, Mr. Cotton's moral character must appear very ambiguous to any one that shall reflect on the subjects by him chosen for the exercise of his poetical talent,-a burlesque of an epic poem,—a version of the most licentious of Lucian's dialogues,—and a ludicrous delineation of some of the most stupendous works of nature,—in all which we meet with such foul imagery, such obscene allusions, such offensive descriptions, such

odious comparisons, such coarse sentiment, and such filthy expression, as could only proceed from a polluted imagination, and tend to excite loathing and contempt.

On the other hand, there are, in his Poems on several Occasions, verses-to ladies in particular-of so courtly and elegant a turn, that, bating their incorrectness, they might vie with many of Waller and Cowley:* others there are, that bespeak him to have had a just sense of honour, loyalty, and moral rectitude; as do these that follow, penned by him with a view to preserve the memory of a deceased friend:†

Virtue, in those good times that bred good men,
No testimony craved of tongue or pen;
No marble columns nor engraven brass,
To tell the world that such a person was ;
For then each pious act, to fair descent,
Stood for the worthy owner's monument :
But in this change of manners and of states,

Good names, though writ in marble, have their fates;
Such is the barbarous and irreverent rage

That arms the rabble of this impious age.

Yet may this happy stone, that bears a name

Such as no bold survivor dares to claim,
To ages yet unborn, unblemish'd stand,
Safe from the stroke of an inhuman hand.
Here, reader! here a PORT's sad relics lie,
To teach the careless world mortality;
Who, while he mortal was, unrivall'd stood,
The crown and glory of his ancient blood;

It is not only for their courtly and elegant turn that the verses of Charles Cotton ought to be praised; there is such a delightful flow of feeling and sentiment, so much of the best parts of our nature mixed up in them, and so much fancy displayed, that one of our most distinguished living poets has adduced several passages of his Ode upon Winter, for a general illustration of the characteristics of Fancy. "The middle part of this ode contains a most lively description of the entrance of Winter, with his retinue, as a 'palsied king,' and yet a military monaich, advancing for conquest with his army; the several bodies of which, and their arms and equipments, are described with a rapidity of detail, and a profusion of fanciful comparisons, which indicate, on the part of the poet, extreme activity of intellect, and a correspondent hurry of delightful feeling." This recommendation from the hand of Wordsworth, will make the reader anxious to become acquainted with a volume," which, though stained with some peculiarities of the age in which the poet lived," ought yet to form a part of all future collections of English poetry.

On a monument of Robert Port, Esq. in the church of Ilam, in the county of Stafford.

Fit for his prince's and his country's trust;
Pious to God, and to his neighbour just;
A loyal husband to his latest end,

A gracious father and a faithful friend;
Beloved he lived, and died o'ercharged with years,
Fuller of honour than of silver hairs.

And, to sum up his virtues, this was he

Who was what all we should, but cannot be.

:

To this it may be added, that in sundry parts of his writings, and even in his poems, the evidences of piety in the author are discernible among them is a paraphrase on that noble and sublime hymn, the eighth Psalm. And in the poem entitled Stanzes Irreguliers, are the following lines:

Dear Solitude! the soul's best friend,

That man acquainted with himself dost make,
And all his Maker's wonders to intend;

With thee I here converse at will,

And would be glad to do so still,

For it is thou alone that keep`st the soul awake.

And lastly, in the present work, he, in the person of Piscator, thus utters his own sentiment of a practice, which few that love fishing and have not a sense of decorum, not to say of religion, would in these days of licence forbear: "A worm is so sure a bait at all times that, excepting in a flood, I would I had laid a thousand pounds that I did not kill fish, more or less, with it, winter or summer, every day in the year; those days always excepted that upon a more serious account always ought so to be:"* whence it is but just to infer, that the delight he took in fishing was never a temptation with him to profane the sabbath.

The inconsistencies above pointed out, we leave the perusers of his various writings to reconcile; with this remark, that he must have possessed a mind well stored with ideas and habituated to reflections, and, in many respects, have been an amiable man, whom Walton could choose for his friend, and adopt for his son.

Chap. xi. Part ii.

J. H.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENGX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONE