nal genius and poetic fire. He is, however, far inferior to the Roman in graceful expression. Buchanan, in some of his lyric compositions, is very elegant and classical.

In our own language, Dryden's ode on St. Cecilia is well known. Mr. Gray, in some of his odes, is celebrated for tenderness and sublimity; and in Dodsley's Miscellanies are several very beautiful lyric poems. Professedly Pindaric odes are seldom intelligible. Cowley is doubly harsh in his Pindaric compositions. His Anacreontic odes are happier and perhaps the most agreeable and perfect in their kind of all his poems.

DIDACTIC POETRY,

Or didactic poetry it is the express intention to convey instruction and knowledge. It may be executed in different ways. The poet may treat some instructive subject in a regular form; or, without intending a great or regular work, he may inveigh against particular vices, or make some moral observations on human life and characters.

The highest species of didactic poetry is a regular treatise on some philosophical, grave or useful subject. Such are the books of Lucretius de Rerum Natura, the Georgics of Virgil, Pope's Essay on Criticism, Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination, Armstrong on Health, and the Art of Poetry by Horace, Vida, and Boileau.

In all such works, as instruction is the professed object, the chief merit consists in sound thought, just. principles, and apt illustrations. It is necessary, however, that the poet enliven his lessons by figures, incidents, and poetical painting. Virgil in his Georgics, embellishes the most trivial circumstances in rural life. When he teaches that the labour of the farmer must begin in spring, he expresses himself thus :

Vere novo gelidus canis cum montibus humor
Liquitor, et Zephyro putris se gleba resolvit ;
Depresso incipiat jam tum mihi Taurus aratro
Ingemere, et sulco attritus splendescere vomer.

In all didactic works such method is requisite as will olearly exhibit a connected train of instruction. With regard to episodes and embellishments, writers of didactic poetry are indulged great liberties. For in a poetical performance a continued series of instruction without embellishment soon fatigues. The digressions in the Georgics of Virgil are his principal beauties. The happiness of a country life, the fable of Aristeus, and the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, canhot be raised too much.

A didactic poet ought also to connect his episodes with his subject. In this, Virgil is eminent. Among modern didactic poets, Akenside and Armstrong are distinguished. The former is rich and poetical; but the latter maintains greater equality, and more chaste and correct elegance.

Of didactic poetry, satires and epistles run into the most familiar style. Satire seems to have been at first a relic of ancient comedy, the grossness of which was corrected by Ennius and Lucilius. At length, Horace brought it into its present form Reformation of man. ners is its professed end; and vice and vicious characters are the objects of its censure. There are three different modes in which it has been conducted by the three great ancient satirists, Horace, Juvenal, and Persius.

The satires of Horace have not much elevation.

They exhibit a measured prose. Ease and grace characterize his manner; and he glances rather at the follies and weaknesses of mankind, than at their vices. He smiles while he reproves. He moralizes like a sound philosopher, but with the politeness of a courtier. Juvenal is more declamatory and serious; and has greater strength and fire. Persius has distinguished himself by a noble and sublime morality.

Poetical epistles, when employed on moral or critical

subjects, seldom rise into a higher strain of poetry, than satires. But in the epistolary form, many other subjects may be treated; as love, poetry, or elegiac. The ethical epistles of Pope are a model; and in them he shows the strength of his genius. Here he had a full opportunity for displaying his judgment and wit, his concise and happy expression, together with the harmony of his numbers. His imitations of Horace are so happy, that it is difficult to say, whether the original or the copy ought to be most admired.

Among moral and didactic writers, Dr. Young ought not to be passed over in silence. Genius appears in all his works; but his universal passion may be considered as possessing the full merit of that animated conciseness, particularly requisite in satirical and didactic compositions. At the same time it is to be observed, that his wit is often too sparkling, and his sentences too pointed. In his Night Thoughts there is great energy of expression, several pathetic passages, many happy images, and many pious reflections. But the sentiments are frequently overstrained and turgid, and the style harsh and obscure.

DESCRIPTIVE POETRY.

In descriptive poetry the highest exertions of genius. may be displayed. In general, indeed, description is introduced as an embellishment, not as the subject of a regular work. It is the test of a poet's imagination, and always distinguishes an original from a second rate genius. A writer of an inferior class sees nothing new or peculiar in the object he would paint; his conceptions are loose and vague; and his expressions feeble and general. A true poet places an object before our eyes. He gives it the colouring of life; a painter might copy from him.

The great art of picturesque description lies in the selection of circumstances. These ought never to be.

vulgar or common. They should mark strongly the object. No general description is good; all distinct ideas are formed upon particulars. There should also be uniformity in the circumstances selected. In describing a great object, every circumstance brought forward should tend to aggrandize; and in describing a gay object, all the circumstances should tend to beautify it. Lastly, the circumstances in description should be expressed with conciseness and simplicity.

The largest and fullest descriptive performance in perhaps any language, is Thompson's Seasons; a work which possesses very uncommon merit. The style is splendid and strong, but sometimes harsh and indistinct. He is an animated and beautiful describer; for he had a feeling heart and warm imagination. He studied nature with care; was enamoured of her beauties; and had the happy talent of painting them like a master. To show the power of a single well chosen circumstance in heightening a description, the following passage may be produced from his summer, where, relating the effects of heat in the torrid zone, he is led to take notice of the pestilence that destroyed the English fleet at Carthagena, under Admiral Vernon.

-You, gallant Vernon, saw

The miserable scene; you, pitying, saw
To infant weakness sunk, the warrior's arm';
Saw the deep racking pang; the ghastly form;
The lip pale quivering, and the beamless eye
No more with ardor bright; you heard the groans
Of agonizing ships from shore to shore;
Heard nightly plunged amid the sullen waves
The frequent corse.

All the circumstances here selected tend to heighten the dismal scene; but the last image is the most striking in the picture.

Of descriptive narration there are beautiful examples in Parnell's Tale of the Hermit. The setting forth of the Hermit to visit the world, his meeting a companion, and the houses in which they are entertained, of the vain man, the covetous man, and the good man, are

pieces of highly finished painting. But the richest and the most remarkable of all the descriptive poems in the English language, are the Allegro and the Penseroso of Milton. They are the storehouse whence many succeeding poets have enriched their descriptions, and are inimitably fine poems. Take, for instance, the following lines from the Penseroso :

-I walk unseen

On the dry, smooth shaven green,
To, behold the wandering moon
Riding near her highest noon;
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft on a plat of rising ground
I hear the far off curfew sound,
Over some wide watered shore
Swinging slow with solemn roar;
Or, if the air will not permit,
Some still removed place will sit,
Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom;
Far from all resort of mirth,

Save the cricket on the hearth,

Or the bellman's drousy charm,

To bless the doors from nightly harm;
Or let my lamp at midnight hour
Be seen in some high lonely tower,
Exploring Plato, to unfold

What worlds, or what vast regions hold
Th' immortal mind, that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshy nook;
And of these demons, that are found

In fire, air, flood, or under ground.

Here are no general expressions; all is picturesque, expressive, and concise. One strong point of view is exhibited to the reader; and the impression made, is lively and interesting.

Both Homer and Virgil excel in poetical description. In the second Ænied, the sacking of Troy is so particularly described, that the reader finds himself in the midst of the scene. The death of Priam is a masterpiece of description. Homer's battles are all wonderful. Ossian, too, paints in strong colours, and