future state, it is upon the whole impressive and well pointed.

I shall here close my remarks on a writer, the propriety of whose introduction in this place may be questioned; though I can feel no hesitation in recommending to your notice, wherever you may meet with them, any of the productions of one whose moral merits render him always an instructive companion, while his poetical excellencies can scarcely fail of making him an agreeable one.

I remain very affectionately,

Yours, &c.

LETTER XV.

I

SHALL now request my amiable pupil to open the volume containing the works of COLLINS, a poet whom I consider as having possessed more original genius than either of the two last mentioned, though a short and unhappy life did not allow him to elaborate his strains to equal perfection. Like Pope, he first tried his powers in the humble walk of pastoral, and produced his "Oriental Eclogues;" which, notwithstanding the little esteem which the author himself afterwards expressed for them, may claim the merit of quitting the ordinary ground of rural poetry, and enriching it with new imagery. The eclogues are all characterized by purity and tenderness of sentiment, by elegant and melodious verse. Two of them, "The Camel Driver," and "The Fugitives," likewise contain much

appropriate description, and present some striking pictures. That the writer had a strong conception of scenes fitted for the pencil, further appears from his "Epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer;" in which, after a lively sketch of the progress of dramatic poetry in modern times, he suggests that mode of illustrating the beauties of our great dramatist by the kindred art of painting, which has since taken place, so much to the honour of the liberal undertaker; and he gives spirited draughts of two designs for this purpose.

The fame of Collins is however principally founded upon his "Odes Descriptive and Allegorical," pieces which stand in the first rank of lyrical poetry. Of these, some are exquisitely tender and pathetic, others are animated and sublime, and all exhibit that predominance of feeling and fancy which forms the genuine poetic character. Some are shrowded in a kind of mystic ob scurity that veils their meaning from the common reader; but no one who is quali

fied to taste the higher beauties of poetry can fail to receive delight from the spirit of his allegorical figures, and the vividness of his descriptive imagery. His versification is extremely varied, and several of its formsare peculiar to himself, The free irregular flow of some of his strains gives them the air of being the spontaneous product of present emotion, like the voluntaries of a master musician; and no English poet seems to have possessed a more musical ear. One of the most successful experiments of the employment of blank verse in lyric measure is presented in his "Ode to Evening," but I am not sure, whether we are not rather cheated into forgetfulness of the verse by the force of the description, than brought deliberately to acquiesce in the want of its accustomed decoration.

The most striking of his Odes is that entitled "The Passions." It is said to be composed for music; but I doubt whether

its fitness for that purpose be not rather according to the poet's conception than the musician's, which are often found to be widely different. The concluding stanza, indeed, seems to confess that the author expected little from the alliance of modern music with Poetry. The idea of representing the passions as performers upon different instruments is a happy one, and their manners and attitudes are in general highly characteristic. The figure of Hope is enchanting, and her strains are some of the sweetest the English language affords. I am not judge enough of music to decide on the propriety of making both Melancholy and Cheerfulness select the horn as their instrument; but the contrasted effect of their different tones is finely painted. know not a more animated group of figures than those which the "hunters call" sets in motion:

I

The oak-crown'd Sisters, and their chaste-eyed queen, Satyrs and sylvan boys were seen,

Peeping from forth their alleys green;