His diction is in the highest degree florid and luxuriant, such as
may be said to be to his images and thoughts "both their lustre and
their shade;" such as invests them with splendour, through which,
perhaps, they are not always easily discerned. It is too exuberant,
and sometimes may be charged with filling the ear more than the
mind.

These poems, with which I was acquainted at their first appearance,
I have since found altered and enlarged by subsequent revisals, as
the author supposed his judgment to grow more exact, and as books or
conversation extended his knowledge and opened his prospects. They
are, I think, improved in general; yet I know not whether they have
not lost part of what Temple calls their "race," a word which,
applied to wines in its primitive sense, means the flavour of the
soil.

"Liberty," when it first appeared, I tried to read, and soon
desisted. I have never tried again, and therefore will not hazard
either praise or censure. The highest praise which he has received
ought not to be suppressed: it is said by Lord Lyttelton, in the
Prologue to his posthumous play, that his works contained

"No line which, dying, he could wish to blot."



WATTS.