But who can tell the joys of those that lie Make ev'ry subject glad, and a whole people blest. Thus wou'd I fain Britannia's wars rehearse, In the smooth records of a faithful verse; When actions, unadorn'd,' are faint and weak, Cities and countries must be taught to speak; 66 1 When actions unadorned, &c. Voltaire in the "Discours préliminaire to his poem on the battle of Fontenoi, justifies his limited use of fictitious personages, by the example of Addison. C'était ce que sentait M. Addison, bon poëte et critique judicieux. Il employa dans son poëme, qui a immortalisé la campagne de Hochstadt, beaucoup moins de fictions qu'on ne s'en est permis dans le Poëme de Fontenoi. Il savait que le duc de Marlborough et le prince Eugène se seraient très peu souciés de voir des dieux où il était question des grandes actions des hommes; il savait qu'on rélève par l'invention, les exploits de l'antiquité, et qu'on court risque d'affaiblir ceux des modernes par de froides allégories; il a fait mieux, il a intéressé l'Europe entière à son action."-Voltaire, Œuvres v.-11, p. 164. 2 "He best can paint them who shall feel them most."-Eloîsa to Abelard. a • When actions, &c. An apology, gracefully enough made for the prosaic plan of this poem: for though the author's invention had not supplied him with a better, his true taste could not but tell him, this was defective. Though in the paths of death I tread, This piece was first published in the Spectator.-G IV. Though in a bare and rugged way, HYMN.1 I. WHEN all thy mercies, O my God, In wonder, love, and praise. II. O how shall words with equal warmth That glows within my ravish'd heart? III. Thy providence my life sustain'd, And all my wants redrest, When in the silent womb I lay, And hung upon the breast. IV. To all my weak complaints and cries, Thy mercy lent an ear, Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learnt To form themselves in pray'r. 'Originally published in the Spectator.-G. |