s his Chase, which he undertook in his maturer age, when
his ear was improved to the approbation of blank verse, of which,
however, his two first lines give a bad specimen. To this poem praise
cannot be totally denied. He is allowed, by sportsmen, to write with
great intelligence of his subject, which is the first requisite to
excellence; and, though it is impossible to interest the common readers
of verse in the dangers or pleasures of the chase, he has done all that
transition and variety could easily effect; and has, with great
propriety, enlarged his plan by the modes of hunting used in other
countries.

With still less judgment did he choose blank verse as the vehicle of
Rural Sports. If blank verse be not tumid and gorgeous, it is crippled
prose; and familiar images, in laboured language, have nothing to
recommend them but absurd novelty, which, wanting the attractions of
nature, cannot please long. One excellence of the Splendid Shilling is,
that it is short. Disguise can gratify no longer than it deceives[46].

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[Footnote 45: William.]

[Footnote 46: An allusion of approbation is made to the above in
Nichol's Literary Anecdotes of the eighteenth century, ii. 58. ED.]

SAVAGE[47].

It has been observed, in all ages, that the advantages of nature, or of
fortune, have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness; and
that those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of their
capacity, have placed upon the summits of human life, have not often
given any just occasion to envy, in those who look up to them from a
lower station: whether it be that apparent superiority incites great
designs, and great designs are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages;
or, that the general lot of mankind is misery, and the misfortunes of
those, whose eminence drew upon them an universal attention, have been
more carefully recorded, because they were more generally observed, and
have, in reality, been only more conspicuous than those of others, not
more frequent, or more severe.

That affluence and power, advantages extrinsick and adventitious, and,
therefore, easily separable from those by whom they are possessed,
should very often flatter the mind with expectations of felicity which
they cannot give, raises no astonishment; but it seems rational to hope,
that intellectual greatness should produce better effects; that minds
qualified for great attainments should first endeavour their own
benefit;