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النشر الإلكتروني

Pleasure is very feldom found where it is fought; our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers which fcatter their odours from time to time in the paths of life, grow up without culture from feeds fcattered by chance.

Idler, vol. 2. p. 31.

The great fource of pleasure is variety. Uniformity must tire at last, though it be uniformity of excellence. We love to expect, and when expectation is disappointed, or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

Life of Butler.

PLEASURES OF LOCAL EMOTION.

TO abstract the mind from all local emotion, would be impoffible, if it were endeavoured; and would be foolish if it were poffible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our fenfes, whatever makes the past, the diftant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and far from my friends, be such frigid philofophy, as may conduct us indifferent, and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wifdom, bravery, or virtue.

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That man is little to be envied whose patriotifin would not gain force upon the plains of Marathon, or whofe piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.

Weftern Islands, p. 346.

POETS AND POETRY.

IN almost all countries, the most antient poets are confidered as the beft. Whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquifition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift conferred at once; or that the first poetry of every nation, furprised them as a novelty, and retained the credit by confent, which it received by accident at firft; or whether, as the province of poetry is to defcribe nature and paffion, which are always the fame, the first writers took poffeffion of the moft ftriking objects for defcription, and the most probable occurrences for fiction, and left nothing to thofe, that followed them, but tranfcription of the fame. events, and new combinations of the fame images. Whatever be the reafon, it is commonly observed, that the early writers are in poffeffion of nature, and their followers of art. P. of Abiffinia, p. 64 and 65. Com

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Compositions, merely pretty, have the fate of other pretty things, and are quitted in time for fome thing useful. They are flowers fragrant and fair, but of short duration; or they are bloffoms only to be valued as they foretell fruits.

Life of Waller.

Poetical devotion cannot often please. A poet may defcribe the beauty and grandeur of nature; the flowers of the fpring, and the harvefts of the autumn, the viciffitudes of the tide, and the revolution of the sky, and praise the Maker for his works in lines which no reader shall lay aside, but the fubject of the description is not God, but the works of God. From poetry the reader expects, and from good poetry always obtains, the enlargement of his comprehenfion, and elevation of his fancy; but this is rarely to be hoped by Chriftians from metrical devotion. Whatever is great, defirous, or tremendous, is comprised in the name of the Supreme Being. OMNIPOTENCE cannot be exalted. INFINITY cannot be amplified, PERFECTION cannot be improved.

It is a general rule in poetry, that all

Ditto,

appro

briated terms of art, should be funk in general

expreffions;

expreffions; because poetry is to speak an univerfal language. This rule is still stronger with regard to arts not liberal, or confined to few, and therefore far removed from common knowledge.

Life of Dryden.

A mythological fable feldom pleafes. The story we are accustomed to reject as falfe, and the manners are fo diftant from our own, that we know them not by fympathy, but by ftudy.

Life of Smith.

No poem fhould be long, of which the pur pose is only to strike the fancy, without enlightening the understanding by precept, ratiocination, or narrative.-A blaze first pleases, and then tires the fight.

Life of Fenton.

After all the refinements of fubtilty, and the dogmatism of learning, all claim to poetical honours must be finally decided by the common sense of readers, uncorrupted with literary prejudices.

Life of Gray.

Tho' Poets profefs fiction, the legitimate end of fiction is the conveyance of truth, and he that has flattery ready for all whom the viciffitudes

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ciffitudes of the world happen to exalt, muft be fcorned as a prostituted mind, that may retain the glitter of wit, but has loft the dignity of virtue.

Life of Waller.

It does not always happen that the fuccefs of a poet is proportionate to his labour. The fame observation may be extended to all works of imagination, which are often influenced by causes wholly out of the performer's power, by the hints of which he perceives not the origin, by sudden elevations of mind which he cannot produce in himself, and which fometimes rife when he expects them least.

Differtation on Pope's Epitaphs, p. 320.

POVERTY.

POVERTY has, in large cities, very different appearances. It is often concealed in fplendor, and often in extravagance. It is the care of a very great part of mankind to conceal their indigence from the reft. They support themselves by temporary expedients, and every day is loft in contriving for to-morrow,

P. of Abiffinia, p. 151.

the great privilege of poverty to be hapvied, to be healthful without phyfic,

and

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