xvi
LIFE OF FENTON.
to just criticism; but as it has more beauties than faults, it would be a kind of violence to candour to shew the blemishes.
The life of Mr. Fenton, like other poets who have been but little engaged in public business, being barren of incidents, we have dwelt the longer on this part of his Works, a tribute which his genius naturally demanded. As to the other poems of this amiable man, they will be found faithfully collected in the following pages.
Mr. Pope, as has been observed, wrote an epitaph upon Mr. Fenton, with which we shall close this life.
This modest stone, what few vain marbles can,
May truly say, Here lies an honest man:
A poet bless'd beyond the poets' fate,
Whom Heav'n kept sacred from the proud and great:
Foe to loud praise, and friend to learned ease,
Content with science in the vale of peace:
Calmly he look'd on either life, and here
Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear;
From Nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd,
Thank'd Heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he dy'd.
May truly say, Here lies an honest man:
A poet bless'd beyond the poets' fate,
Whom Heav'n kept sacred from the proud and great:
Foe to loud praise, and friend to learned ease,
Content with science in the vale of peace:
Calmly he look'd on either life, and here
Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear;
From Nature's temp'rate feast rose satisfy'd,
Thank'd Heav'n that he had liv'd, and that he dy'd.
