Or thither *, where beneath the show'ry weft, No flaves revere them, and no wars invade : The rifted mounds their yawning cells unfold, And forth the Monarchs ftalk with fovereign power, In pageant robes; and, wreath'd with theeny gold, And on their twilight tombs aerial council hold. X. But, oh, o'er all, forget not Kilda's race, On whose bleak rocks, which brave the wafting Fair Nature's daughter, Virtue, yet abides. With fparing temperance at the needful time, Thus, bleft in primal innocence they live, Suffic'd, and happy with that frugal fare Which tafteful toil and hourly danger give. Nor need'ft thou blush that fuch false themes engage There, Shakespeare's felf, with ev'ry garland Flew to thofe fairy climes his fancy fheen, In mufing hour; his wayward fifters found, The fhadowy kings of Banquo's fated line, To fuch adapt thy lyre, and fuit thy powerful verse. In fcenes like thefe, which, daring to depart Th' heroic Mufe employ'd her Taffo's art! How have I trembled, when, at Tancred's ftroke, Its gufhing blood the gaping cyprefs pour'd! When each live plant with mortal accents spoke, And the wild blast upheav'd the vanquish'd fword! How have I fat, when pip'd the penfive wind, To hear his harp by British Fairfax ftrung! Prevailing poet! whofe undoubting mind, Believ'd the magic wonders which he fung! * Icolmkill, one of the Hebrides, where near fixty of the ancient Scottish, Irish, and Norwegian kings are interred. † An aquatic bird like a goofe, on the eggs of which the inhabitants of St. Kilda, another of the Hebrides, chiefly subsist. Hence, at each found, imagination glows! Hence his warm lay with fofteft sweetness flows ! Melting it flows, pure murmuring, ftrong and clear, And fills th' impaffion'd heart, and wins th' harmonious ear! XIII. All hail, ye scenes that o'er my foul prevail ! Ye fplendid friths and lakes, which, far away, Or o'er your stretching heaths, by Fancy led; Or o'er your mountains creep, in awful gloom! Or crop, from Tiviotdale, each lyric flower, And mourn, on Yarrow's banks, where Willy's Meantime, ye powers that on the plains which bore Y A dewy turf lies o'er his head, And at his feet a stone. His shroud, which death's cold damps destroy, In earth for ever laid. Pale panfies o'er his corpfe were plac'd, But will he ne'er return, whofe tongue Ah, no! his bell of peace is rung, His lips are cold as clay. They bore him out at twilight hour, The youth who lov'd fo well: Ah me! how many a true-love shower Of kind remembrance fell! Each maid was woe-but Lucy chief, OBSERVATIONS O N THE ORIENTAL TH ECLOGUES. HE genius of the paftoral, as well as of every other refpectable fpecies of poetry, had its origin in the Eaft, and from thence was tranfplanted by the Muses of Greece; but whether from the continent of the leffer Afia, or from Egypt, which, about the æra of the Grecian paftoral, was the hofpitable nurse of letters, it is not eafy to determine. From the fubject, and the manner of Theocritus, one would incline to the latter opinion, while the hiftory of Bion is in favour of the former. However, though it should still remain a doubt through what channel the paftoral travelled weftward, there is not the least shadow of uncertainty concerning its oriental origin. In thofe ages, which, guided by facred chronology, from a comparative view of time, we call the early ages, it appears from the moft authentic hiftorians, that the chiefs of the people employed themfelves in rural exercises, and that aftronomers and legiflators were at the fame time fhepherds. Thus Strabo informs us, that the hiftory of the creation was communicated to the Egyptians by a Chaldean fhepherd. From these circumstances it is evident, not only that such fhepherds were capable of all the dignity and elegance peculiar to poetry, but that whatever poetry they attempted would be of the paftoral kind; would take its fubjects from those scenes of rural fimplicity in which they were converfant, and, as it was the offspring of Harmony and Nature, would employ the powers it derived from the former to celebrate the beauty and benevolence of the latter. Accordingly we find that the most ancient poems treat of agriculture, aftronomy, and other objects within the rural and natural fyftems. What conftitutes the difference between the Georgic and the Paftoral, is love and the colloquial or dramatic form of compofition peculiar to the latter': this form of compofition is fometimes difpenfed with, and love and rural imagery alone are thought fufficient to distinguish the paftoral. The tender paffion, however, seems to be effential to this fpecies of poetry, and is hardly ever excluded from thofe pieces that were intended to come under this denomination: even in thofe eclogues of the Amoebean kind, whofe only purport is a trial of skill between contending fhepherds, love has its ufual fhare, and the praifes of their refpective miftreffes are the general fubjects of the competitors. It is to be lamented that scarce any oriental compofitions of this kind have furvived the ravages of ignorance, tyranny, and time; we cannot doubt that many fuch have been extant, poffibly as far down as that fatal period, never to be mentioned in the world of letters without horror, when the glorious monuments of human ingenuity perished in the afhes of the Alexandrian library. Thofe ingenious Greeks whom we call the parents of paftoral poetry were, probably, no more than imitators, that derived their harmony from higher and remoter fources, and kindled their poetical fires at thofe then unexting.fhed lamps which burned within the tombs of oriental genius. It is evident that Homer has availed himself of thofe magnificent images and defcriptions fo frequently to be met with in the books of the Old Teftament; and why may not Theocritus, Mofchus, and Bion, have found their archetypes in other eafters writers, whofe names have perifhed with their works? yet, though it may not be illiberal to admit fuch a fuppofition, it would certainly be invidious to conclude, what the malignity of cavillers alone could fuggeft with regard to Homer, that they deftroyed the fources from which they borrowed, and, as it is fabled of the young of the pelican, drained their fupporters to death. As the Septuagint-tranflation of the Old Teftament was performed at the requeft, and under the patronage, of Ptolemy Philadelphus, it were not to be wondered if Theocritus, who was entertained at that prince's court, had borrowed fome of his paftoral imagery from the poetical paffages of those books. I think it can hardly be doubted that the Sicilian poet had in his eye certain expreffions of the prophet Isaiah, when he wrote the following lines: Νυν τα μεν φορεοίε βατοι, φορείς δ' ακανθαι. Α δε καλα ναρκισσου επ' αρκεύθοισι κομάσαι· Let vexing brambles the blue violet bear, All, all revers'd The pine with pears be crown'd, And the bold deer fhall drag the trembling hound. The caufe, indeed, of these phænomena is very different in the Greek from what it is in the Hebrew poet; the former employing them on the death, the latter on the birth, of an important perfon: but the marks of imitation are nevertheless obvious. It might, however, be expected, that if Theocritus had borrowed at all from the facred writers, the celebrated Epithalamium of Solomon, fo much within his own walk of poetry, would not certainly have escaped his notice. His Epithalamium on the marriage of Helena, moreover, gave him an open field for imitation; therefore, if he has any obligations to the royal bard, we may expect to find them there. The very opening of the poem is in the spirit of the Hebrew fong: Ουτω δη πρωΐζα κατέδραθες, ο Φίλε γαμόρε; The colour of imitation is still stronger in the following paffage: Δως αν έλλοισα καλον διέβαινε προσωπον, Η καπῳ κυπαρισσος, η άρματι Θεσσαλος ίππος. This defcription of Helen is infinitely above the ftyle and figure of the Sicilian paftoral" She is like the rifing of the golden morning, when the night departeth, and "when the winter is over and gone. She refembleth the cyprefs in the garden, the "horfe in the chariots of Theffaly." Thefe figures plainly declare their origin; and others, equally imitative, might be pointed out in the fame Idyllium. This beautiful and luxuriant marriage paftoral of Solomon is the only perfect form of the oriental eclogue that has furvived the ruins of time, a happiness for which it is, probably, more indebted to its facred character than to its intrinfic merit. Not that it is by any means deftitute of poetical excellence: like all the eastern poetry, it is bold, wild, and unconnected in its figures, allufions, and parts, and has all that graceful and magnificent daring which characterifes its metaphorical and comparative imagery. In confequence of thefe peculiarities, fo ill adapted to the frigid genius of the North, Mr. Collins could make but little use of it as a precedent for his oriental eclogues; and even in his third eclogue, where the fubject is of a fimilar nature, he has chofen ather to follow the mode of the Doric and the Latin paftoral. 1 The fcenery and fubjects then of the following eclogues alone are oriental; the ftyle and colour are purely European; and, for this reafon, the author's preface, in which he intimates that he had the originals from a merchant who traded to the Eaft, is omit ted, as being now altogether fuperfluous. With regard to the merit of these eclogues, it may juftly be afferted, that in fimpli city of defcription and expreffion, in delicacy and foftnefs of numbers, and in natural and unaffected tenderness, they are not to be equalled by any thing of the pastoral kind in the English language. E CLOGUE I. THIS eclogue, which is entitled Selim, or the Shepherd's Moral, as there is nothing dramatic in the fubject, may be thought the leaft entertaining of the four: but it is by no means the leaft valuable. The moral precepts which the intelligent fhep herd delivers to his fellow-fwains and the virgins, their companions, are fuch as would infallibly promote the happpiness of the paftoral life. In perfonating the private virtues, the poet has obferved great propriety, and has formed their genealogy with the moft perfect judgment, when he reprefents them as the daughters of Truth and Wisdom. The characteristics of Modefty and Chaftity are extremely happy and peinturefque a "Come thou whofe thoughts as limpid fprings are clear, To lead the train, fweet Modefty appear; With thee be Chaftity, of all afraid, Cold is her breaft, like flowers that drink the dew, A filken veil conceals her from the view." The two fimilies borrowed from rural objects are not only much in character, but per fectly natural and expreffive. There is, notwithstanding, this defect in the former, that it wants a peculiar propriety; for purity of thought may as well be applied to Chastity as to Modefty; and from this inftance, as well as from a thousand more, we may fee the neceffity of distinguishing, in characteristic poetry, every object by marks and attributes peculiarly its own. It cannot be objected to this eclogue, that it wants both thofe effential criteria of the paftoral, love and the drama; for though it partakes not of the latter, the former ftill retains an intereft in it, and that too very material, as it profeffedly confults the virtue and happiness of the lover, while it informs what are the qualities - that muft lead to love. ALL the advantages that any fpecies of poetry can derive from the novelty of the. fubject and scenery, this eclogue poffeffes. The rout of a camel-driver is a fcene that fcarce could exift in the imagination of an European, and of its attendant diftreffes he could have no idea.-Thefe are very happily and minutely painted by our defcriptive poet. What fublime fimplicity of expreffion! what nervous plainnefs in the opening of the poem! "In filent horror o'er the boundless wafte The magic pencil of the poet brings the whole fcene before us at once, as it were by enchantment, and in this fingle couplet we feel all the effect that arifes from the terrible wildnefs of a region unenlivened by the habitations of men. The verses that defcribe fo minutely the camel-driver's little provifions, have a touching influence on the 1 1 imagination, and prepare the reader to enter more feelingly into his future apprehenfions of diftrefs : "Bethink thee, Haffan, where fhall Thirft afruage, When fails this cruife, his unrelenting rage!" It is difficult to fay whether his apoftrophe to the "mute companions of his toils," is more to be admired for the elegance and beauty of the poetical imagery, or for the tenderness and humanity of the fentiment. He who can read it without being affected, will do his heart no injuftice, if he concludes it to be deftitute of fenfibility: Ye mute companions of my toils, that bear In all my griefs a more than equal share ! Yet in thefe beautiful lines there is a flight error, which writers of the greateft genius Seine's blue nymphs deplore This fault is indeed a common one, but to a reader of taste it is nevertheless disgustful; and it is mentioned here as the error of a man of genius and judgment, that men of genius and judgment may guard against it. Mr. Collins fpeaks like a true poet, as well in fentiment as expreffion, when, with regard to the thirft of wealth, he fays, Why heed we not, while mad we hafte along, Than dreary deferts, if they lead to gold?" But however juft these fentiments may appear to those who have not revolted from nature and fimplicity, had the author proclaimed them in Lombard-ftreet, or Cheapfide, he would not have been complimented with the understanding of the bellman.— A ftriking proof, that our own particular ideas of happiness regulate our opinions concerning the fenfe and wisdom of others! It is impoffible to take leave of this most beautiful eclogue, without paying the ribute of admiration fo juftly due to the following nervous lines. "What if the lion in his rage I meet! Oft in the duft I view his printed feet: This, amongst many other paffages to be met with in the writings of Collins, fhews |