have studied with advantage the poem of Davies[1], which, though merely philosophical, yet seldom leaves the ear ungratified.
But he was rather smooth than strong; of the full resounding line, which Pope attributes to Dryden, he has given very few examples. The critical decision has given the praise of strength to Denham, and of sweetness to Waller.
His excellence of versification has some abatements. He uses the expletive do very frequently; and though he lived to see it almost universally ejected, was not more careful to avoid it in his last compositions than in his first. Praise had given him confidence; and finding the world satisfied, he satisfied himself.
His rhymes are sometimes weak words: so is found to make the rhyme twice in ten lines, and occurs often as a rhyme through his book.
His double rhymes, in heroick verse, have been censured by Mrs. Philips, who
- ↑ Sir John Davies, entituled, "Nosce teipsum. This Oracle expounded in two Elegies; I. Of Humane Knowledge; II. Of the Soule of Man and the Immortalitie thereof, 1599."R.
