Review," in addition to 80 other works aggregating 4720 pages. "Moll Flanders " and " A History of the Plague" as works of fiction are only a little below "Robinson Crusoe" in merit. Though not a poet, he sometimes wrote good verses. For example:

"Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The devil always builds a chapel there;
And 'twill be found, upon examination,
The latter has the larger congregation."

A reproduction of frontispiece in first edition (1719)

John Gay (1683-1732) wrote the first musical comedy in English, "The Beggars' Opera," and the best "Fables" in the language, always excepting George Ade's. Swift loved him, and of him Pope "Of manners gentle, of affections mild; In wit a man, simplicity a child."

wrote:

Among his sayings the following have passed into proverbs:

"How happy I could be with either,

Were t'other dear charmer away!"

"Life is a jest and all things show it;

I thought so once and now I know it."

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) wrote about 500 hymns, some of which are poetical and many familiar. For example:

"Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
For God hath made them so;
Let bears and lions growl and fight,
For 'tis their nature, too."

"How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!"

"For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do."

"And while the lamp holds out to burn
The vilest sinner may return."

"When I can read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,
I'll bid farewell to every fear

And wipe my weeping eyes."

"There is a land of pure delight
Where saints immortal reign."

Ambrose Philips (1675-1749) was distinguished by Addison's friendship and Pope's enmity. The latter described his style as Namby Pamby, a nickname that stuck, being at once descriptive of his person, his poetry, and his name. Its felicity is seen from these lines to a little girl in her mother's arms:

"Timely blossom, infant fair,
Fondling of a happy pair,
Every morn and every night
Their solicitous delight,

Sleeping, waking, still at ease,
Pleasing without skill to please,
Little gossip, blithe and hale,
Tattling many a broken tale,
Singing many a tuneless song,
Lavish of a heedless tongue."

John Philips (1676-1709) loved Milton, and wrote a mock heroic poem in Miltonic blank verse called "The Splendid Shilling," which Addison pronounced the finest burlesque poem in the English language.

.

Edward Young (1683-1765) in his youth wrote tragedy and satire. Having lost all of his family by death, at the age of fifty-nine he turned to moral poetry and produced his best work, his "Night Thoughts." These as a whole are sombre and none too readable, but they contain passages of power and beauty. A few of his best thoughts follow:

"Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep!"

"The bell strikes one. We take no note of time
But from its loss."

"Be wise to-day; 't is madness to. defer."

"

Procrastination is the thief of time."

"At thirty man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty and reforms his plan;
At fifty chides his infamous delay;

Resolves, and re-resolves; then dies the same."

"How blessings brighten as they take their flight!"

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'An undevout astronomer is mad."

"Be wise with speed;

A fool at forty is a fool indeed."

"Think naught a trifle, though it small appear;
Small sands the mountain, moments make the year,
And trifles life."

George Berkeley (1685-1753) did three noteworthy things. He kept Pope's friendship; proved that the act of seeing, though it seems immediate, is really a reasoned interpretation of signs and hints; and showed that the world we see and touch is not a substance which produces our sensations but a substance which depends for its existence on being perceived. Byron alludes to this when he says:

"When Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter
And proved it, 't was no matter what he said."

Berkeley had also great faith in tar water and the future of America, being the author of a poem on the latter subject which contains the famous line,

"Westward the star of empire takes its way."

Joseph Butler (1692-1752), bishop and moralist, wrote "The Analogy of Religion," a book which won for him the name of the Bacon of theology. So closely did he apply himself to his studies that Queen Caroline thought he was dead, until the jolly old Archbishop of Canterbury informed her that he was only buried.

Colley Cibber (1671-1757) tried to rewrite Shakespeare's "Richard III" and was justly punished for his presumption by being made King of the Dunces by Pope. His version, however, has some good lines not found in the original. Among them are:

"The aspiring youth that fired the Ephesian dome
Outlives in fame the pious fool that raised it."

"Off with his head! So much for Buckingham!"

John Byrom (1692-1763) wrote several graceful poems and one immortal epigram, the following Jacobite toast:

"God bless the King-I mean the faith's Defender;
God bless-no harm in blessing-the Pretender.
But who Pretender is or who is King,
God bless us all! that's quite another thing."

James Thomson (1700-1748) between 1726 and 1730 published a poem in blank verse called "The Seasons." This work is the first conspicuous example in English of what is called the poetry of nature. It pleased Pope to such an extent that he bought three copies at a guinea each. Some of its lines are familiar to people who never heard of Thomson and more of them deserve to be. For instance:

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Summer. 1. 47.

Ships dim-discovered dropping from the clouds."

Autumn nodding o'er the yellow plain."

"Loveliness

Needs not the foreign aid of ornament,

But is, when unadorned, adorned the most.
Thoughtless of beauty, she was beauty's self."

Cruel as death and hungry as the grave."

"These as they change, Almighty Father! these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of Thee."

Ibid. 1. 946.

Autumn. 1. 2.

Ibid. 1. 204.

Winter. 1. 393.

Hymn. 1. 1.

In 1748, just before his death, Thomson completed another fine poem, “The Castle of Indolence," which was written in playful imitation of Spenser's style and stanza. Four lines, which Irving chose as motto for his "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," will show the spirit of the piece:

"A pleasing land of drowsyhead it was,

Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye,
And of gay visions in the clouds that pass,
Forever flushing round a summer sky."

Thomson is also the author of the British national anthem,
Britannia," and of the unfortunate line,

"O Sophonisba! Sophonisba, O!"

which somebody parodied with

"O Jemmy Thomson! Jemmy Thomson, O!”

Rule,

John G. Saxe, in his poem on early rising, has this appreciative stanza on Thomson: