252 LIFE OF COTTON. 



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son distinguished in the First Part by the name of Venator, and whom 

 Walton of an HUNTER had made on ANGLER : in which, besides the 

 instructions there given, and the beautiful scenery of a wild and ro- 

 mantic country therein -displayed, the urbanity, courtesy, and hospi- 

 tality of a well-bred country gentleman are represented to great ad- 

 vantage. 



This book might be thought to contain a delineation of the author's 

 character; and dispose the reader to think that he was delighted with 

 his situation, content with his fortunes, and, in short, one of the 

 happiest of men : but his next publication speaks a very different 

 language ; for living in a country that abounds, above all others in 

 this kingdom, in rocks, caverns, and subterraneous passages, (objects 

 that, to some minds, afford more delight than stately woods and 

 fertOe plains, rich inclosures, and other, the milder beauties of rural 

 nature.) he seems to have been prompted by no other than a SULLEN 

 CURIOSITY to explore the secrets of that nether world ; and, surveying 

 it rather with wonder than philosophical delight, to have given way 

 to his disgust, in a description of the dreary and terrific scenes around 

 and beneath him, in a poem (written, as it is said, in emulation of 

 Hobbe's Df MirabUibus Pecci) entitled The Wonders of the Peak. 

 This be first published in 1681 ; and, afterwards, with a new edition 

 of the I ' >*tie and the Burlesque of Luctan. 



The only praise of this poem, is the truth of the representations 

 therein contained ; for it is a mean composition, inharmonious in the 

 versification, and abounding in expletives. Of the spirit in which it 

 is written, a judgment may be formed from the following lines, part 

 of the exordium : 



Durst I expostulate with Providence, 



I then should ask u herein the innocence 



Of my poor undr signing infancy, 



Could Heuv'n offend to such a black degree, 



As for th' offence to damn me to a place 



Where nature only suffers, in disgrace. 



and these other, equally splenetic : 



Environ'd round with nature's shame* and ills, 



Black heaths, wild rocks, black crags, and naked hills. 



So far was Mr. Cotton from thinking, with the Psalmist, " that his 

 lot was fallen in a fair ground, or that he had a goodly heritage/' 



But a greater, and, to the world, a more beneficial employment, at 

 this time solicited his attention, The old translation of Montaigne's 

 Essays, by the " resolute" John Florio, as he styled himself, was be- 

 come obsolete ; and the world was impatient for a new one. Mr. 

 Cotton not only understood French with a critical exactness, but was 

 well acquainted with the almost barbarous dialect in which that book 

 is written : and the freedom of opinion, and general notions of men 

 and things, which the author discovers, perhaps falling-in with Mr. 

 Cotton's sentiments of human life and manners, he undertook, and in 

 1685 gave to the world, in a translation of that author, in three vo- 

 lumes 8vo. one of the most valuable books in the English language 

 in short, a translation that, if it does not (and many think it does in 

 some respects) transcend, is yet nothing inferior to the original. And, 



(1) Vide Part II. chap. l. p. 275. 



