'Tis certain, were he now alive with us, And did revolving destiny constrain To dress his thoughts in English o'er again, Himself could write no otherwise than thus. His old encomium never did appear So true as now: "Romans and Greeks, submit! Something of late is in our language writ, More nobly great than the famed Iliads were." JA. WRIGHT. TO MR DRYDEN, ON _HIS TRANSLATIONS_. As flowers, transplanted from a southern sky, But hardly bear, or in the raising die, Missing their native sun,--at best retain But a faint odour, and but live with pain; So Roman poetry, by moderns taught, } Wanting the warmth with which its author wrote, } Is a dead image, and a worthless draught. } While we transfuse, the nimble spirit flies, Escapes unseen, evaporates, and dies. Who then attempts to shew the ancients' wit, Must copy with the genius that they writ: Whence we conclude from thy translated song, So just, so warm, so smooth, and yet so strong, Thou heavenly charmer! soul of harmony! That all their geniuses revived in thee. Thy trumpet sounds: the dead are raised to light; New-born they rise, and take to heaven their flight; Deck'd in thy verse, as clad with rays, they shine, All glorified, immortal, and divine. As Britain, in rich soil abounding wide, Furnished for use, for luxury, and pride, Yet spreads her wanton sails on every shore, For foreign wealth, insatiate still of more; To her own wool, the silks of Asia joins, And to her plenteous harvests, Indian mines; So Dryden, not contented with the fame Of his own works, though an immortal name---- To lands remote he sends his learned Muse, The noblest seeds of foreign wit to chuse. Feasting our sense so many various ways, Say, is't thy bounty, or thy thirst of praise, That, by comparing others, all might see, Who most excelled, are yet excelled by thee? GEORGE GRANVILLE. FOOTNOTES: [269] Essay of Translated Verse, p. 26. THE LIFE OF PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS MARO, BY KNIGHTLY CHETWOOD, D.D.[270]