In the poem on the Navy, those lines are very noble which suppose
the king's power secure against a second deluge; so noble, that it
were almost criminal to remark the mistake of "centre" for
"surface," or to say that the empire of the sea would be worth
little if it were not that the waters terminate in land.

The poem upon Sallee has forcible sentiments; but the conclusion is
feeble. That on the Repairs of St. Paul's has something vulgar and
obvious; such as the mention of Amphion; and something violent and
harsh: as,


So all our minds with his conspire to grace
The Gentiles' great apostle and deface
Those state obscuring sheds, that like a chain
Seem'd to confine, and fetter him again:
Which the glad saint shakes off at his command,
As once the viper from his sacred hand.
So joys the aged oak, when we divide
The creeping ivy from his injured side.


Of the two last couplets, the first is extravagant, and the second
mean.

His praise of the Queen is too much exaggerated; and the thought,
that he "saves lovers, by cutting off hope, as gangrenes are cured
by lopping the limb," presents nothing to the mind but disgust and