disposing his matter; and perhaps the perception of this growing
incumbrance inclined him to stop. By this abruption, posterity lost
more instruction than delight. If the continuation of the
"Davideis" can be missed, it is for the learning that had been
diffused over it, and the notes in which it had been explained.

Had not his characters been depraved like every other part by
improper decorations, they would have deserved uncommon praise. He
gives Saul both the body and mind of a hero:


His way once chose, he forward threat outright.
Nor turned aside for danger or delight.


And the different beauties of the lofty Merah and the gentle Michal
are very justly conceived and strongly painted.

Rymer has declared the "Davideis" superior to the "Jerusalem" of
Tasso, "which," says he, "the poet, with all his care, has not
totally purged from pedantry." If by pedantry is meant that minute
knowledge which is derived from particular sciences and studies, in
opposition to the general notions supplied by a wide survey of life
and nature, Cowley certainly errs, by introducing pedantry, far more
frequently than Tasso. I know not, indeed, why they should be
compared; for the resemblance of Cowley's work to Tasso's is only
that they both exhibit the agency of celestial and infernal spirits,
in which, however, they differ widely; for Cowley supposes them
commonly to operate upon the mind by suggestion; Tasso represents
them as promoting or obstructing events by external agency.