well to English liberty. No modern lyceum will ever equal thy
glory: whether in soft pastorals thou didst sing the flames of
pampered apprentices and coy cook maids; or mournful ditties of
departing lovers; or if to Maeonian strains thou raisedst thy voice,
to record the stratagems, the arduous exploits, and the nocturnal
scalade of needy heroes, the terror of your peaceful citizens,
describing the powerful Betty or the artful Picklock, or the secret
caverns and grottoes of Vulcan sweating at his forge, and stamping
the queen's image on viler metals which he retails for beef and pots
of ale; or if thou wert content in simple narrative, to relate the
cruel acts of implacable revenge, or the complaint of ravished
virgins blushing to tell their adventures before the listening crowd
of city damsels, whilst in thy faithful history thou intermingledst
the gravest counsels and the purest morals. Nor less acute and
piercing wert thou in thy search and pompous descriptions of the
works of nature; whether in proper and emphatic terms thou didst
paint the blazing comet's fiery tail, the stupendous force of
dreadful thunder and earthquakes, and the unrelenting inundations.
Sometimes, with Machiavelian sagacity, thou unravelledst intrigues
of state, and the traitorous conspiracies of rebels, giving wise
counsel to monarchs. How didst thou move our terror and our pity
with thy passionate scenes between Jack Catch and the heroes of the
Old Bailey? How didst thou describe their intrepid march up Holborn
Hill? Nor didst thou shine less in thy theological capacity, when
thou gavest ghostly counsels to dying felons, and didst record the
guilty pangs of Sabbath breakers. How will the noble arts of John
Overton's** painting and sculpture now languish? where rich
invention, proper expression, correct design, divine attitudes, and
artful contrast, heightened with the beauties of Clar. Obscur.,
embellished thy celebrated pieces, to the delight and astonishment