painting glass, and was but poorly supplied by the laborious and
tesselated imitations of Mason and Gray. On the other hand, he
was the first writer under whose skilful management the
scientific vocabulary fell into natural and pleasing verse. In
this department, he succeeded as completely as his contemporary
Gibbons succeeded in the similar enterprise of carving the most
delicate flowers from heart of oak. The toughest and most knotty
parts of language became ductile at his touch. His
versification, in the same manner, while it gave the first model
of that neatness and precision which the following generation
esteemed so highly, exhibited at the same time, the last examples
of nobleness, freedom, variety of pause, and cadence. His
tragedies in rhyme, however worthless in themselves, had at least
served the purpose of nonsense-verses; they had taught him all
the arts of melody which the heroic couplet admits. For bombast,
his prevailing vice, his new subjects gave little opportunity;
his better taste gradually discarded it.

He possessed, as we have said, in a pre-eminent degree the power
of reasoning in verse; and this power was now peculiarly useful
to him. His logic is by no means uniformly sound. On points of
criticism, he always reasons ingeniously; and when he is disposed
to be honest, correctly. But the theological and political
questions which he undertook to treat in verse were precisely
those which he understood least. His arguments, therefore, are
often worthless. But the manner in which they are stated is
beyond all praise. The style is transparent. The topics follow
each other in the happiest order. The objections are drawn up in
such a manner that the whole fire of the reply may be brought to
bear on them. The circumlocutions which are substituted for