Addison objects to Butler for the use of burlesque verse. "If Hudibras (says he, Spectator, No. 249,) had been set out with as much wit and humour in heroic verse as he is in doggerel, he would have made a much more agreeable figure than he does; though the generality of his readers are so much pleased with his double rhymes, that I don't expect many will be of my opinion in this particular." Dryden's opinion may fairly be set in opposition to that of Addison. That great man, in his Dedication to Juvenal, speaking of Butler's Hudibras, says, "The worth of his poem is too well known to need my commendation; and he is above my censure: the choice of his numbers is suitable enough to his design, as he has managed it; but in any other hand, the shortness of his verse, and the quick returns of rhyme, had debased the dignity of style. His good sense is perpetually shining through all he writes; it affords us not the time of finding faults; we pass through the levity of his rhyme, and one is immediately carried into some admirable useful thought. After all, he has chosen this kind. of verse, and has written the best in it."

"To this let me add," says Dr. Grey, "that the shortness of verse, and quick returns of rhyme, have been some of the principal means of raising and perpetuating the fame which this poem has acquired; for the turns of wit and satirical sayings being short and pithy, are therefore more tenable by the memory, and this is the reason why Hudibras is more frequently quoted in conversation than the finest pieces of wit in heroic poetry."

As to the double rhymes, we have Dryden's authority that they are necessary companions to burlesque writing. Besides, were they really faults, they are neither so many as to cast a blemish upon the known excellencies of

this poem; nor yet solely to captivate the affections of the generality of its readers. Their admiration is moved by a higher pleasure than the mere jingle of words; the sublimity of wit and pungency of satire claim our regard, and merit our highest applause. In short, the poet has surprisingly displayed the noblest thoughts in a dress so humorous and ludicrous, that it was no wonder it soon became the chief amusement of the King and Court after its publication, was highly esteemed by all the great wits in that reign, and still continues to be an entertainment to all who have a taste for the most refined ridicule and satire.

Another merit which may with confidence be ascribed to Butler, is that of originality. Hudibras is an indisputable original; for the poet trod in a path wherein he had no guide, nor has he had many followers. Without any pattern to copy, he had the art to erect himself into a standard elegant and lofty, to which no one yet, in the same walk of poetry, has been able to make more than a distant approach.

The seeming easiness of Butler's method and verse have tempted some to imitate his style, but "such wretched imitations," says Dr. Grey, "have augmented the fame of the original, and evidenced the chiefest excellency in writing to be in Butler, which is the being easy and natural, yet inimitable.”

This has been long the distinguishing characteristic of Hudibras, grounded upon an undeniable truth, that all imitations have hitherto proved unsuccessful; and when we consider the subject matter of the poem, the remarkable era that produced it, and the extraordinary endowments of the author, we may safely venture to pronounce it one of the most wonderful compositionsof the human mind.

To the English reader Hudibras will always afford more pleasure than it possibly can to a foreigner, because it touches upon national habits and manners at one of the most interesting and extraordinary periods in our annals; and no one can perfectly relish its beauties who is not possessed of some acquaintance with the times and transactions to which it refers. No opinion can be more erroneous than that, because Butler describes a state of society and manners which now no longer exist, and ridicules follies and absurdities which now are happily exploded, that he ought to be regarded as an obsolete writer, unworthy of perusal. The truth is, that there are very few writers from whom more benefit may be derived than Butler. The soundness of his political principles, his attachment to the church of England, and his abhorrence of every species of fanaticism and bigotry, have deservedly endeared his memory to all who are attached to the British constitution in church and state; and the picture he draws of the agitation, calamities, and disorder of revolutionary times, cannot fail to attach every one who reads him more closely to the mild, beneficent, and liberal, yet firm and energetic, system of government which we now, and, it is to be hoped, we may long enjoy.

PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE

ON THE

CIVIL WAR AND USURPATION.

THERE is no portion of British History which has so often exercised the pens of our most eminent writers, as that period which is comprehended between the accession of James I. to the throne of England on the death of the glorious Elizabeth, in 1603, and the expulsion of his grandson James II. in 1688. It was an era fruitful in great men and great events; and to the noble exertions of our ancestors in those times, particularly at the revolution, we are indebted for that well-poised constitution which we enjoy at the present day, and which may safely be pronounced, if not the best system of government, at least the most entire system of liberty that was ever known amongst mankind.

The object of this preliminary discourse is, to present the reader with such a picture of the civil war and usurpation, as will enable him to judge more accurately of the value of the poem which follows. "Human works," Dr. Jolinson observes in his critique on Butler," are not easily found without a perishable part. Of the ancient poets every reader feels the mythology tedious and oppressive. Of Hudibras, the manners being founded on opinion, are temporary and local, and therefore become every day less intelligible and less striking. What Cicero says of philosophy is true likewise of wit and humour, that time effaces the fictions of opinion, and confirms the determinations of Nature. Such manners as depend upon standing regulations and general passions are co-extended with the race of man; but those modifications of life, and peculi.