Kneller, by heav'n, and not a master, taught, Whose art was nature, and whose pictures thought; Now for two ages, having snatch'd from fate Whate'er was beauteous, or whate'er was great, Lies crown'd with princes' honours, poets' lays, Due to his merit, and brave thirst of praise. Living, great nature fear'd he might outvie Her works; and dying, fears herself may die. Of this epitaph the first couplet is good, the second not bad, the third is deformed with a broken metaphor, the word _crowned_ not being applicable to the _honours_ or the _lays_; and the fourth is not only borrowed from the epitaph on Raphael, but of very harsh construction. IX. ON GENERAL HENRY WITHERS. _In Westminster Abbey_, 1723. Here, Withers, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind, Thy country's friend, but more of human kind. O! born to arms! O! worth in youth approv'd! O! soft humanity in age belov'd! For thee the hardy vet'ran drops a tear, And the gay courtier feels the sigh sincere. Withers, adieu! yet not with thee remove Thy martial spirit, or thy social love! Amidst corruption, luxury and rage, Still leave some ancient virtues to our age: Nor let us say (those English glories gone) The last true Briton lies beneath this stone. The epitaph on Withers affords another instance of commonplaces, though somewhat diversified, by mingled qualities, and the peculiarity of a profession. The second couplet is abrupt, general, and unpleasing; exclamation seldom succeeds in our language; and, I think, it may be observed, that the particle O! used at the beginning of a sentence, always offends. The third couplet is more happy; the value expressed for him, by different sorts of men, raises him to esteem; there is yet something of the common cant of superficial satirists, who suppose that the insincerity of a courtier destroys all his sensations, and that he is equally a dissembler to the living and the dead[156]. At the third couplet I should wish the epitaph to close, but that I should be unwilling to lose the two next lines, which yet are dearly bought if they cannot be retained without the four that follow them. X. ON MR. ELIJAH FENTON. _At Easthamstead, in Berkshire, 1730._ This modest stone, what few vain marbles can, May truly say, here lies an honest man: A poet, blest beyond the poet's fate, Whom heav'n kept sacred from the proud and great: Foe to loud praise, and friend to learned ease, Content with science in the vale of peace. Calmly he look'd on either life, and here Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear; From nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd, Thank'd heav'n that he liv'd, and that he dy'd.