though some episodes in the Seasons, and scenes in his plays, discover a capacity for managing a tender and moderate passion. His plays are elegant and correct compositions; they contain many noble and virtuous sentiments, but they are sparing of incidents, and they abound with declamation.

2. Had Milton studied nature with as much attention as Thomson, he would probably have excelled all poets in the liveliness and beauty of his descriptions. All his works shine with the richness of his imagination. He is uncommonly happy in the selection of the most pertinent circumstances, and in the use of the most significant figures, particularly metaphors, which demonstrate the exquisite sensibility of his fancy.

3. He seems, however, to have taken a general survey of nature, rather than to have attended minutely to her particular operations. He never dwells long on a topic in description, and he rather glances at it than delineates it. But no author surpasses him in selecting the most prominent and picturesque ingredients of a figure which make the deepest impression. He is never general or diffuse, qualities which are found to be very hostile to the success of this species of writing. Example 1. He thus describes the scenes of morning in the Allegro. "To hear the lark begin his flight,

And, singing, startle the dull night,
From his watch-tower in the skies,
Till the dappled dawn doth rise:
While the cock, with lively din,
Scatters the rear of darkness thin,
And to the stack, or the barn-door,
Stately struts his dames before:
Oft listening how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn;
While the ploughman, near at hand,
Whistles o'er the furrow'd land,
And the milk-maid singing blythe,
And the mower whets his scythe;
And every shepherd tells his tale,
Under the hawthorn in the dale."

Example 2. The Penseroso presents the following account of the objects of the evening.

"Oft on a plat of rising ground,
I hear the far-off curfew sound
Over some wide-watered shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar,
Or, if the air will not permit,
Some still removed place will fit,
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 drowsy charm

To bless the doors from nightly harm;
Or let my lamp and midnight hour,
Be seen in some high lonely tow'r.
Sometimes let gorgeous tragedy,
In sceptred pall, come sweeping by,
Presenting Thebes' or Pelop's line,
Or the tale of Troy divine."

Obs. 4. The elegant genius of Parnell has produced some beautiful examples of descriptive poetry; and it is much to be regretted he had not indulged the world with more specimens. He possessed a fine imagination, a most correct taste, and great knowledge of human nature. His versification is not inferior to that of Pope in melody and concise

ness, and is superior in simplicity and perspicuity. It teems with instruction, with the genuine language of the heart; and there is no poetry, perhaps, which the reader can peruse so often with pleasure.

Example 1. The Hermit is an extremely beautiful, moral, descriptive poem, fraught with important instruction, communicated in a simple, but dignified manner, and recommended by the most delicate appeals to the imagination.

2. All the great epic poets exhibit eminent specimens of descriptive poetry. Homer, Virgil, and Ossian, excel in it. The following picture of desolation, by Ossian, is conceived with much vigour of imagination.

"I have seen the walls of Balclutha, but they were desolate. The flames had resounded in the halls, and the voice of the people is heard no more. The stream of Clutha was removed from its course by the fall of the walls. The thistle shook there its lonely head; the moss whistled in the wind. The fox looked out from the window, and the rank grass of the wall waved round his head. Desolate is the dwelling of Morna; silence is in the house of her fathers!"

592. The chief errors committed in descriptions, are the admission of unmeaning or supernumerary epithets and phrases, the introduction of general terms, and the intermixture of trivial or insignificant circumstances clothed in pompous and splendid language. The best poets are sometimes faulty in all these articles.

Illus. 1. All general terms are improper in descriptions, because they suggest either no idea at all, or none that is fixed; while the essence of picturesque description consists in prompting conceptions which are palpable, and of which the mind, of course, takes firm hold. These can result only from objects particular and distinct.

Example. Shakspeare, to expose the absurdity of attempting a thing impracticable, says, with great energy, in Henry the Fifth: "You may as well go about to turn the sun into ice, by fanning in his face with a peacock's feather."

Analysis. Had the poet made the expression general, by leaving out the "peacock's feather," he would have mutilated the picture, and debilitated the impression. How feeble would have been the following phraseology! "You may as well go about to turn the sun into ice, by fanning in his face." Had he retained the "feather," but dropped the "peacock," the expression would have been more picturesque: "You may as well go about to turn the sun into ice, by fanning his face with a feather." Even this picture, however, is much inferior in beauty and vivacity to the particular language the poet hath thought proper to adopt: "You may as well go about to turn the sun into ice, by fanning in his face with a peacock's feather." The mind grasps the image at once, and is struck with its sprightliness and propriety.

593. Forced elevation of the expression above the tone of the thought, is another error not uncommon in description. Illus. Homer relates, that Achilles commanded his domestics to prepare a vessel to heat water for washing the dead body of Patroclus, which they accordingly performed. Nothing can be more simple than the language of the poet. Things are called by their proper names, and very few epithets are added. Pope must improve this simple

phraseology, and he has communicated to it an air of ridicule, by the pompous and figurative expression of his translation. Iliad, xviii. 405.

"A massy cauldron of stupendous frame

They brought, and plac'd it o'er the rising flame;
Then heap'd the lighted wood; the flame divides
Beneath the vase, and climbs around its sides;
In its wide womb they pour the rushing stream,
The boiling water bubbles to the brim."

594. It often happens, that a description presents objects which would be extremely disagreeable to the sight, while the description itself is not only not disagreeable, but conveys high pleasure. This is a curious phænomenon, and merits some attention. Two causes seem to concur in producing this effect.

Illus. A poetical description resembles an historical painting, the merit of which consists in communicating to the different figures the same positions and appearance that they hold in nature. And although the figures be disagreeable, yet the picture may yield much pleasure, because the merit of it lies in the accuracy of the imitation. The mind surveys with delight the excellence of an art which can imitate nature so completely. The purpose of the description, as well as of the picture, is to impart exact ideas of the objects, though it operates by words instead of colours. The imitation, in both cases, is the chief source of the pleasure. The pleasure of the imitation much more than counterbalances the disgust arising from the inspection of the object. This seems to be the first cause. Words, again, have a beauty in their sound and arrangement, independent of their signification; the merit of the execution in the picture, and of the composition in the description, affords delight. This seems to be the second cause. Both causes concur to counteract the disgust excited by the object.

Scholium. These remarks point out the greatest beauty of description, which takes place when the object, the imitation, and the expression, all concur to augment the pleasure of the reader. In all other cases, these partially oppose the effects of one another.

If, however, an object prompt horror, no excellence of imitation or language can recommend its description. The picture of Sin, in Paradise Lost, though drawn with the brightest colours, is of this class. It excites horror, and all Milton's eloquence cannot render it tolerable.

CHAPTER VII.

EPIC POETRY.

595. EPIC and dramatic poetry are universally allowed be the most dignified, and, at the same time, the most difficult species of poetic composition. To contrive a story which shall please and interest all readers, by being at once entertaining, important, and instructive; to fill it with suit

able incidents; to enliven it with a variety of characters, and of descriptions; and, throughout a long work, to maintain that propriety of sentiment, and that elevation of style, which the epic character requires, is unquestionably the highest effort of poetical genius. Hence so very few have succeeded in the attempt, that strict critics will hardly allow any other poems to bear the name of epic, except the Iliad and the Æneid.

Illus. 1. The plain account of the nature of an epic poem is, the recital of some illustrious enterprise in a poetical form. This is an exact definition of this subject. It comprehends several other poems, besides the Iliad of Homer, the Æneid of Virgil, and the Jerusalem of Tasso; which are, perhaps, the three most regular and complete epic works that ever were composed. But to exclude all poems from the epic class, which are not formed exactly upon the same model as these, is the pedantry of criticism.

2. We can give exact definitions and descriptions of minerals, plants, and animals; and can arrange them with precision, under the different classes to which they belong, because nature affords a visible unvarying standard, to which we refer them. But with regard to works of taste and imagination, where nature has fixed no standard, but leaves scope for beauties of many different kinds, it is absurd to attempt defining and limiting them with the same precision.

3. Criticism, when employed in such attempts, degenerates into trifling questions about words and names only.

4. The most competent judges, therefore, have no scruple to class such poems as Milton's Paradise Lost, Lucan's Pharsalia, Statius's Thebaid, Ossian's Fingal and Temora, Camoens' Lusiad, Voltaire's Henriade, Fenelon's Telemachus, Glover's Leonidas, and Wilkie's Epigoniad, under the same species of composition with the Iliad and the Eneid; though some of them approach much nearer than others to the perfection of these celebrated works. They are, undoubtedly, all epic; that is, poetical recitals of great adventures; which is all that is meant by this denomination of poetry. (Illus. 1.)

5. The end which epic poetry proposes, is to extend our ideas of human perfection; or, in other words, to excite admiration. Now this can be accomplished only by proper representations of heroic deeds, and virtuous characters. For high virtue is the object, which all mankind are formed to admire; and, therefore, epic poems are, and must be, favourable to the cause of virtue. Valour, truth, justice, fidelity, friendship, piety, magnanimity, are the objects which, in the course of such compositions, are presented to our minds, under the most splendid and honourable colours.

6. In behalf of virtuous personages, our affections are engaged; in their designs, and their distresses, we are interested; the generous and public affections are awakened; the mind is purified from sensual and mean pursuits, and accustomed to take part in great, heroic enterprises. It is, indeed, no small testimony in honour of virtue, that several of the most refined and elegant entertainments of mankind, such as that species of poetical composition which we now consider, must be grounded on moral sentiments and impressions. This is a testimony of such weight, that, were it in the power of sceptical philosophers, to weaken the force of those reasonings which establish the

essential distinctions between vice and virtue, the writings of epic poets alone were sufficient to refute their false philosophy; shewing, by that appeal which they constantly make to the feelings of mankind in favour of virtue, that the foundations of it are laid deep and strong in human nature.

596. The general strain and spirit of epic composition, sufficiently mark its distinction from the other kinds of poetry.

Illus. 1. In pastoral writing, the reigning idea is innocence and tranquillity. Compassion is the great object of tragedy; ridicule the province of comedy. The predominant character of the epic is, admiration excited by heroic actions.

2. It is sufficiently distinguished from history, both by its poetical form, and the liberty of fiction which it assumes. It is a more calm composition than tragedy. It admits, nay, requires, the pathetic and the violent, on particular occasions; but the pathetic is not expected to be its general character. It requires, more than any other species of poetry, a grave, equal, and supported dignity.

3. It takes in a greater compass of time and action, than dramatic writing admits; and thereby allows a more full display of characters. Dramatic writings display characters chiefly by means of sentiments and passions; epic poetry, chiefly by means of actions. The emotions, therefore, which it raises, are not so violent, but they are more prolonged.

Obs. These are the general characteristics of this species of composition. But, in order to give a more particular and critical view of it, let us consider the epic poem under three heads; first, with respect to the subject, or action; secondly, with respect to the actors, or characters; and, lastly, with respect to the narration of the poet.

597. The action, or subject of the epic poem, must have three qualifications: it must be one; it must be great; it must be interesting.

Illus. 1. First, it must be one action, or enterprise, which the poet chooses for his subject.

Example 1. In all the great epic poems, unity of action is sufficiently apparent. Virgil, for instance, has chosen for his subject, the establishment of Æneas in Italy. From the beginning to the end of the poem, this object is ever in our view, and links all the parts of it together with full connection. The unity of the Odyssey is of the same nature; the return and re-establishment of Ulysses in his own country. The subject of Tasso is the recovery of Jerusalem from the Infidels; that of Milton, the expulsion of our first parents from Paradise; and both of them are unexceptionable in the unity of the story.

2. The professed subject of the Iliad, is the anger of Achilles, with the consequences which it produced. The Greeks carry on many unsuccessful engagements against the Trojans, as long as they are deprived of the assistance of Achilles. Upon his being appeased and reconciled to Agamemnon, victory follows, and the poem closes.

Analysis. It must be owned, however, that the unity, or connecting principle, is not quite so sensible to the imagination here, as in the Æneid. For, throughout many books of the Iliad, Achilles is out of