Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 2.djvu/228

Rh could fix him upon a subject of useful literature, nobody shone to greater advantage: he seemed to be the Memmius whom Lucretius speaks of: — —Quem tu, Dea, tempore in omni Omnibus ornatum voluisti excellere rebus. His works are not many, and those scattered up and down in Miscellanies and Collections, being wrested from him by his friends with great difficulty and reluctance. All of them together make but a small part of that much greater body which lies dispersed in the possession of numerous acquaintance; and cannot perhaps be made intire, without great injustice to him, because few of them had his last hand, and the transcriber was often obliged to take the liberties of a friend. His condolence for the death of Mr. Philips is full of the noblest beauties, and hath done justice to the ashes of that second Milton, whose writings will last as long as the English language, generosity, and valour. For him Mr. Smith had contracted a perfect friendship; a passion he was most susceptible of, and whose laws he looked upon as sacred and inviolable.

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