simple expression is the most sublime. Poetry loses its lustre and
its power, because it is applied to the decoration of something more
excellent than itself. All that pious verse can do is to help the
memory and delight the ear, and for these purposes it may be very
useful; but it supplies nothing to the mind. The ideas of Christian
Theology are too simple for eloquence, too sacred for fiction, and
too majestic for ornament; to recommend them by tropes and figures,
is to magnify by a concave mirror the sidereal hemisphere.

As much of Waller's reputation was owing to the softness and
smoothness of his numbers, it is proper to consider those minute
particulars to which a versifier must attend.

He certainly very much excelled in smoothness most of the writers
who were living when his poetry commenced. The poets of Elizabeth
had attained an art of modulation, which was afterwards neglected or
forgotten. Fairfax was acknowledged by him as his model; and he
might have studied with advantage the poem of Davies, which, though
merely philosophical, yet seldom leaves the ear ungratified.

But he was rather smooth than strong; of "the full resounding line,"
which Pope attributes to Dryden, he has given very few examples.
The critical decision has given the praise of strength to Denham,
and of sweetness to Waller.

His excellence of versification has some abatements. He uses the
expletive "do" very frequently; and, though he lived to see it
almost universally ejected, was not more careful to avoid it in his
last compositions than in his first. Praise had given him
confidence; and finding the world satisfied, he satisfied himself.