Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 2.djvu/239

 notorious. At Oxford, as we all know, much will be forgiven to literary merit; and of that he had exhibited sufficient evidence by his excellent ode on the death of the Orientalist, Dr. Pocock, who died in 1691, and whose praise must have been written by Smith, when he had been but two years in the university. This ode, which closed the second volume of the Musæ Anglicanæ, though perhaps some objections may be made to its Latinity, is by far the best Lyrick composition in that collection; nor do I know where to find it equalled among the modern writers. It expresses, with great felicity, images not classical in classical diction: its digressions and returns have been deservedly recommended by Trapp as models for imitation.

He had several imitations of Cowley: Testitur hinc tot sermo coloribus Quot tu, Pococki, dissimilis tui
 * Orator effers, quot vicissim

Te memores celebrare gaudent. I will not commend the figure which makes the orator pronounce the colours, or give to colours memory and delight. I quote it, however, as an imitation of these lines