Inque dies magis in montem succedere sylvas Lucretius, De Rer. Nat. lib. v. 1. 1370. In that part, too, where he sings the praises of Empedocles, beautiful is the picture, which he draws of the coast of Sicily, and the wonders of Ætna and Charybdis :—and no finer contrast is exhibited by any of the poets, ancient or modern, than the one, in which he compares the pleasure of being stretched beneath the shade of a tree, or on the banks of a river, with the more costly raptures of a splendid banquet. It has all the feeling of Nature, and all the denial of philosophy: the versification (with the exception of the last line) is flowing; the sentiments are golden sentiments; and, to speak after the manner of painters, the composition is correct, and the colours "dipt in heaven." Si non aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per ædis Jactaris, quam si plebia in veste cubandum est. Virgil, too, that great master of the passions, and the best of all the Latin descriptive poets, if we except Lucretius,—was an ardent lover of picturesque imagery. Hence he is, at all times, on the watch to inquire into, and explain the pheno In mena of Nature; to boast the number of flocks and herds of Italy; the beauty of its groves; the fineness of its olives; the virility of its spring, and the mildness of its climate. his Pastorals, and his Georgics, we find him sketching with graceful exuberance; while, in the Eneid, many of his individual scenes are drawn with the pencil of a finished painter. The picture of Claude, in the collection of Welbore Ellis, exhibits not more clearly to the imagination, than the language of the Mantuan poet, describing the spot where Æneas landed in Italy. Crebrescunt optatæ auræ ; portusque patescit Jam propior, templumque apparet in arce Minervæ. Ipse latet; gemino demittunt brachia muro Turriti scopuli, refugitque a litore templum a. A view at the dawn of day is delineated with all the fidelity of actual observation. Jamque rubescebat radiis mare, et æthere ab alto Cum venti posuere, omnisque repente resedit Æthera mulcebant cantu, lucoque volabant b. Nor is it possible to draw for the eye a more agreeable picture, than that which has so often been esteemed a sketch, in miniature, of the bay of Naples. Est in secessu longo locus: insula portum a Æn. lib. iii. 530. b Lib. vii. 25. e Lib. i. 163. Among the Latin descriptive poets, Lucretius occupies the first rank; Virgil the second; Silius Italicus the third; Statius the fourth; and Lucan the fifth. Some of the French writers, too, indicate a lively sense of natural beauty. La Fontaine affords some highly animated scenes; particularly in the fable of the "Oak and the Reed." He adds, indeed, a landscape to every fable. What fine passages are there in De Lille! How beautiful are the descriptions of Fenelon and St. Pierre ! While those of Rousseau combine the richness of Claude, with the grace, splendour, and magnificence of Titian. But to confine ourselves to British writers. Chaucer, active, ardent, and gay; a lover of wine, fond of society, and well qualified to charm, by the elasticity of his spirits, the agreeableness of his manners, and the native goodness of his heart, was a lover of that kind of cheerful scenery, which amuses in the fields, or delights us in the garden. The rising sun, the song of the sky-lark, and a clear day, had peculiar charms for him. His descriptions, therefore, are animated and gay, full of richness, and evidently the result of having studied for himself. Spenser, the wild, the fascinating Spenser,-delineates, with force and simplicity, the romantic and enchanting. Milton,-born, as Richardson finely observes, two thousand years after his time,—was a lover of the beautiful in Nature, as he was of the sublime in poetry. For, though his "Il Penseroso" abounds in those images, which excite the most sombre reflections, the general character of his delineations is of an animated cast. In his minor poems,-which afforded him an opportunity of consulting his natural taste, unconnected with epic gravity,—we find him, almost universally, sketching with a light, elegant, and animated pencil. What can be more cheerful, for instance, than his song on May morning; or his Latin poem, on the coming of Spring? And can any thing be more rich than the scenery of Comus; or more abounding in all, that renders imagery delightful, than his lyric of "L'Allegro ?" And beyond all this, what shall we compare with his "Garden of Eden?" Nothing in the "Odyssey;" nothing in the descriptions, we have received, of the "Groves of Antioch "," or the " Valley of Tempé;" neither the "Gardens of Armida "," or the "Hesperides;" the "Paradise of Ariosto; Claudian's "Garden of Venus";" the "Elysium" of Virgil and Ovid; or the "Cyprus" of Marino; neither the "Enchanted Garden" of Boyardo; the "Island” of Camöense; or Spenser's "Garden of Adonis," have any thing to compare with it. Rousseau's Verger de Clarens" is alone superior! The poet's province is to copy Nature; such, also, is the province of the historian; and it is a subject of regret, that ancient historical writers had not been more observant of the rule. How far more interesting had their pages been, for instance, had they enlivened the progress of their armies, with descriptions of the countries, through which they marched, rather than have encumbered them with so much military detail! Something of this kind may be observed in Xenophon, Quintus Curtius, and Cæsar's Commentaries; yet they are but sketches: strongly lined, in some instances, it is true; yet still sketches, and most of them imperfect. But, however well a scene may be described, every landscape, so exhibited, does not necessarily become a subject for the pallet of the painter. Some descriptions embrace objects a Alluded to in P. L. b. iv. 272, and in Julian; and described by Strabo, lib. xvi. b Tasso, cant. xvi. 9. The best principles of a garden are comprised in the following line : Arte che tutto fa, nulla se scopre. c Orl. Fur. xxxiv. Garden of Alcina, b. vi. d Nupt. Hon. et Mariæ, v. 49. e Cant. ix. f Faerie Queene, b. iii. c. 6. Sylvester has some curious and not inelegant descriptions in his translation of Du Bartas.-W. ii. D. i. too minute; some are too humble and familiar; others too general; and some there are too faithful to be engaging. This poet delights in the familiar; that in the beautiful; some in the picturesque; and others in the sublime. These may be styled the four orders of landscape. In the first we may class Cowper; in the second Pope; in the third Thomson; in the fourth Ossian. The descriptions of Cowper are principally from humble and domestic life; including objects seen every day and in every country. The gipsey group is almost the only picturesque sketch, he affords. Highly as this has been extolled, how much more interesting had the subject become, in the hands of a Dyer, a Thomson, or a Beattie !-Pope excels in the beautiful; yet he is so general, that his vales and plains flit before the imagination, leaving on the memory few traces of existence. Thomson's pictures are principally adapted to the latitude of Richmond. Some, however, are sublime to the last degree. They present themselves to the eye in strong and well-defined characters; the keeping is well preserved, and the outlines boldly marked. Dyer tinted like Ruysdael; and Ossian with the force and majesty of Salvator Rosa. In describing wild tracts, pathless solitudes, dreary and craggy wildernesses, with all the horrors of savage deserts, partially peopled with a hardy, but not inelegant race of men, Ossian is unequalled. In night-scenery he is above all imitation, for truth, solemnity, and pathos; since no one more contrasts the varied aspects of Nature with the mingled emotions of the heart. What can be more admirable, than his address to the evening star, in the Songs of Selma; to the moon, in Darthula; or that fine address to the sun in his poem of Carthon?-passages almost worthy the sacred pen of the prophet Isaiah. The uniformity, that has been observed in the imagery of Ossian, is not the uniformity of dulness. Local description only aids the memory: for a scene must be actually observed |