University of Virginia Library

BEing obliged before we speak of this Translation, to give some prefatory Account of the Original; it will be necessary to resume what has been delivered on that Subject by the incomparable Dr. Sprat, the present

Bishop of Rochester, in the Account he has given us of

the Life and Writings of Mr. COWLEY. Concerning these Six Books of Plants, he has thus express'd his Sentiments with that strength of Judgment and freedom of Ingenuity which was requisite.

"The occasion (says he) of his choosing the Subject of his Six Books of Plants, was this: When he returned into England, he was advised to dissemble the main intention of his coming over, under the disguise of applying himself to some setled Profession. And that of Physick was thought most proper. To this purpose, after many Anatomical Dissections,

he proceeded to the consideration of Simples; and having furnish'd himself with Books of that Nature, he retir'd into a fruitful part of Kent, where every Field and Wood might shew him the real Figures of those Plants, of which he read. Thus he speedily master'd that part of the Art of Medicine. But then, as one of the Ancients did before him in the Study of the Law, instead of employing his Skill for Practice and Profit, he presently digested it into that form which we behold.

The two first Books treat of Herbs, in a Style resembling the Elegies of Ovid and Tibullus, in the sweetness and freedom of the Verse; but excelling them in the strength of the Fancy, and vigour of the Sence. The third and forth discourse of Flowers in all the variety of Catullus and Horace's Numbers; for the last of which Authors he had a peculiar Reverence, and imitated him, not only in the stately and numerous pace of his Odes and Epodes, but in the familiar easiness of his Epistles and Speeches. The two last speak of Trees, in the way of Virgil's Georgicks: Of these the sixth Book is wholly Dedicated to the Honor of his Country. For making the British Oak to preside in the Assembly of the Forest Trees, upon that occasion he enlarges on the History of our late Troubles, the King's Affliction and Return, and the beginning of the Dutch Wars; and manages all in a Style, that (to say all in a word) is equal to the Valor and Greatness of the English Nation.—

This was as much as could be expected in a transient and general Account, and what has left but little room for a more particular Essay. As the nature of the Subject has sometimes furnish'd our Author with great and beautiful occasions of Wit and Poetry, so it must be confess'd, that in the main he has but a barren Province to cultivate, where the Soil was to be enrich'd by the Improvements of Art and Fancy. He must so frequently descend to such minute Descriptions of Herbs and Flowers, which administer so feeble occasions for Thought, and unfurnished of Variety, that since the enumerations are no where tedious, but every thing made beautiful and entertaining, it must be wholly ascribed to the Faculty of the Artist, with a Materiem superavit Opus [ Ovid, Met. 2.5].

This wonderful Performance put me on a consideration, by what Artifices of Ingenuity he could possibly effect it: I was sensible that the smallest Subjects were capable of some Ornament in the hands of a good Poet,

This was actually hinted by Virgil when he came to his Description of Bees, to raise the credit of his own Performance; whereas those Manners, Politicks and Battels with which he has adorn'd his Poem, were for the most part true in Fact, and the rest lay obvious to Invention; but our Author was oblig'd to animate his silent Tribe of Plants, to inspire them with Motion and Discourse, in order to lighten his Descriptions with Story: But where he is confin'd to the descriptive part it self, where he is to register them standing mute in their Beds, divested of that imaginary Life which might beautifie the Work, Hic labor, hoc opus [cf. Virgil, Aen. 6.129], it is there it seems worth our while to observe the sagacious Methods of his Fancy, in finding Topicks for his Wit, and Instances of amiable Variety. He had the Judgment to perceive, that where the Subjects he was to treat of in their own naked Nature, and simply consider'd, could afford but slender Matter; yet that many things were greater in their Circumstances than they are in themselves: Accordingly he has most nicely fastened upon each minute Circumstance of the places where his Plants and Herbs delight to spring, the Seasons of their Flowering, Seeding, and Withering, their long or short Duration, their noxious or healthful Qualities, their Figures and Colouring; all which he has managed with such dexterity of Fancy and unexhausted Conceit, that each Individual (as he has dress'd and set them out) appears with a different Aspect and peculiar Beauty: The very agreeableness or disagreeableness of their Names to those Dispositions wherewith Nature has indued them, are frequently the surprizing and diverting occasion of his Wit.

Yet in all this Liberty, you find him no where diverted from his Point, Judgment, that is to say, a just regard to his Subject is every where conspicuous, being never carried too remote by the heat of his Imagination and quickness of his Apprehension. His Invention exerts its utmost Faculties, but so constantly over-rul'd by the Dictates of Sense, that even those Conceits which are so unexpectedly started, and had lain undiscover'd by a less piercing Wit, are no sooner brought to light, but they appear the result of a genuine Thought, and naturally arising from his Matter. Antiquity had been before-hand, in furnishing him with diverting Fables relating to several Plants, which he never suffers to escape his hands, of which he is not a cold and dull Reciter, but delivers them with so new a Grace, such an ingenious connexion and application to his Design, that in every one, instead of a stale Tradition, we have the pleasure of a Story first told.

Having mention'd our Authors Design in this Work, we must speak something of the Oeconomy thereof, the most important part of a Poem, and from whence it properly takes its Character; for without that artificial cast and drift, it can never be able to support it self, the boldest Efforts of Wit and Fancy being otherwise but extravagant Excursions. This it is that has compleated the Georgicks of Virgil, where each Book is concluded with a surprising and natural Turn. Nor does our Author here fall short of him in Contrivance and artificial Periods. For having in his First and Second of these Books taken in the Species of Herbs, the First is a promiscuous Account (not without poetical Starts upon all Occasions.) The Second is an Assembly of such chiefly as come under the Female Province, and are serviceable in Generation or Birth: The Scene which he has chosen for calling this Council is the Physick Garden at Oxford, which having adjusted Matters for the benefit of the teeming Sex, they are not at last tumultuously dissolved, but artificially broke up by the approach of the Gardiner, whom our Author fancies to have entered that Morning more early than usual, to gather such Herbs as he knew would be of assistance to his Wife who was fallen in Labour. The Third and Fourth Books treat of Flowers; in the Third he ranges those that appear in the Spring, in the Fourth he musters up the Tribes of Summer and Autumn Flowers, which together with the former, are assembled before Flora, to offer their respective Claims for the Precedency; the Goddess at last being doubtful how to determin amongst such noble Competitors, and to decline the Odium of a Decision, she puts them in mind of the Insolence of Tarquin, the dangerous Consequences of a single and arbitrary Principality; that she was a Roman Deity, and they themselves were Flowers of a Roman Breed; she therefore advises them to follow the Model of the Roman Government, and resolve themselves into a Common-Wealth of Plants, where the Preferments or Offices being annual and successive, there would be room left to gratifie their several Merits. Here we see the utmost force of Judgment and Invention in most Happy Conjunction, what more beautiful Cast or Turn could the Poet have given to the Subject before him, or where can we see the Drama it self wind up with a more artificial close. In his Fifth Book, the Competition is between the Trees of the American World and ours. Pomona seated in one of the fortunate Islands between the two Worlds, the Convention from each is assembled before; the Author finding the Preference to be in truth due to the Indian Plants, yet unwilling to determin for the Savage Climate, prevents the Decision by a quarrel between Omelochilus the Indian Bacchus, and the European: The Powers of both Countries are thereupon drawn into Parties, and ready to engage. When Apollo disarms the barbarous Deity by the Charms of his Musick, which is so beautiful and artificial a Turn, that an ordinary Poet would have rested satisfied with the Discovery. Our Author pursues his Advantage, and besides the Conquest of his Harp, puts a Song into Apollo's Mouth, and fastens upon the most noble as well as agreeable Subject that the Nature could afford, of Columbus his Discovery of America. The drift of his last Book, which yet seems to top upon the rest, is described to our Hands in the forementioned Preface, where the impartial Reader may judge if Virgil himself has better designed for the Glory of Rome and August, than Cowley for his Country and the Monarch of his time.

As for the Translation we have here presented, I fear I shall be thought too much a Party to speak with any great Freedom: I will only presume to say, that if the Reader considers the difficulty of the Task, he will not think the Version altogether unworthy of the Original: He that takes the pains to compare them, will at least find a justness to the Authors Sense, and I hope that the performance of the rest that were engaged with me in the Attempt, will not only support their Parts of the Undertaking, but make amends for the Defects of mine. If in the main you meet with that Diversion I proposed, it is all that is expected by