your Lordship will immediately conceive) lead us to condemn those which are far-fetched, purfued too closely, or foreign to the fubject of the Poem. This is frequently the confequence of following the track of imagination with implicit compliance, as the Poet, without being fenfible of his mistake, runs into one digreffion after another, until his work is made up of incoherent ideas; in which, as Horace expreffeth it, velut ægri fomnia vanæ Finguntur fpecies, ut nec pes, nec caput uni "Reddatur formæ "." Such is the book, that like a fick man's dreams, FRANCIS. This is the character of the Ode to Thrafidæus the Theban; in which the Poet is infenfibly led from one digreffion to another, until his readers lofe fight of the principal fubject, which is dropped almost as foon as propofed. THE laft circumftance, mentioned as characteristic of the Ode, was a certain picturesque vivacity of defcription. n Hor. de Art. Poet. • Πίνδ. Πυθ. ωδ. ιά. In this we permit the Lyric Poet to indulge himfelf with greater freedom than any other, because beauties of this kind are necessary to the end of exciting admiration. It is the peculiar province of imagination, to give that life and expreffion to the ideas of the mind, by which Nature is most happily and judiciously imitated. By the help of this poetical magic, the coldeft fentiments become interefting, and the most common occurrences arreft our attention. A man of Genius, instead of laying down a series of dry precepts for the conduct of life, exhibits his fentiments in the most animating manner, by moulding them into symmetry, and fuperadding the external beauties of drapery and colour". His reader, by this expedient, is led through an Elyfium, in which his Fancy is alternately foothed and transported with a delightful fucceffion of the most agreeable objects, whose.combination at last suggests an important moral to be impreffed upon the memory. The Ancients appear to have been fully fenfible of the advantages of this method of illuftra P Thus the reader, who would pay little regard to the perfon who should forbid him to truft the world too much, will yet be ftruck with this fimple admonition, when it appears in the work of a Genius: Lean not on earth, 'twill pierce thee to the heart; ting truth, as the works not only of their Poets, but even those of their Philofophers and Hiftorians, abound with just and beautiful perfonifications. Their two allegorical Philofophers, Prodicus and Cebes, carry the matter fill further, and inculcate their leffons, by fubftituting in place of cool admonition a variety of perfonages, whọ affume the most dignified character, and address at the fame time the imagination, the paffions, and even the fenfes of mankind'. Thefe Authors confider man as a creature, poffeffed of different, and of limited faculties, whofe actions are directed more frequently by the impulfe of paffion, than regulated by the dictates of reason and of truth'. Thus Xenophon, the fimpleft and most perfpicuous of Hiftorians, has borrowed many noble images from Homer; and Plato is often indebted to this poet, whom yet he banifhed from his Commonwealth. Cicero in his moft ferious pieces ftudies the Diction, and copies the Manner of the Greek Philofopher; and it evidently appears, that Thucydides has taken many a glowing Metaphor from the Odes of Pindar. We might produce many examples of this from their writings, if these would not fwell this note to too great a length. The reader of tafte may fee this fubject fully difcuffed in Mr. Gedde's ingenious Effay on the Compofition of the Ancients. * Δεν δε τις μυθους συνίς αναι, και τη λέξει συναπεργάζεσθαι οιτι μαλις ο πρθ ομμάτων τεθεμενον. Ouzo yap av erapyssata cfar ωσπερ παρ αυτοις γιγνομενος τοῖς πραττομένοις, ευρίσκοι το πρεπο, και ηκιςα αν λανθάνοιτο τα υπέ varria. Apis. Пoint. xep. 15. Thus Cicero tells us : "Nec eft "majus in dicendo, quam ut Ora"tor fic moveatur, ut impetu quo"dam animi, & perturbatione ma gis quam concilio regatur. Plura "enim multo homines judicant "odio, & amore, & cupiditate, &c. quam veritate & præfcripto." De Orat. lib. ii. c. 42. It is obvious, that in Lyric Poetry the Author cannot run into this series of methodifed allegory, because the fubjects of the Ode are real incidents, which would be disfigured by the continued action of fictitious perfonages. His descriptions therefore ought to be concise, diversified, and adapted properly to that train of fentiment, which he is employed to illuftrate. When this is the cafe, we are highly entertained with frequent perfonifications, as these are criterions by which we eftimate the genius of the Poet. I NEED not, my Lord, to fuggeft, on this branch of my fubject, that it requires the utmoft delicacy to perfonify inanimate objects so justly, as to render them adapted in every circumftance to the occafion on which they are introduced. Your Lordship however will permit me to observe, that as the happieft effect is produced upon the mind of the reader, by the judicious introduction of an ideal perfonage; fo he is apt to be difgufted in an equal degree, when the conduct of the Poet in this inftance is in the fmalleft measure irregular or defective. When an intellectual idea falls under the cognifance of an external fenfe, it is immediately furveyed with an accuracy proportioned to its importance, and to the diftance at which we fuppofe it to be placed. We judge' of Virtue and Vice, when reprefented as perfons, in the fame manner as we judge of men, whofe appearance is fuggefted by memory; and we therefore expect, that thefe ideal figures fhall be difcriminated from each other by their dress, attitudes, features, and behaviour, as much as two real perfons of oppofite characters always are in the familiar intercourfe of ordinary life. In reality we affign a particular fhape, complection, and manner, to the creatures of imagination, by the fame rule which leads us to afcribe a certain affemblage of features to a perfon whom we have never feen, upon seeing his character particularly displayed, or upon liftening to a minute detail of his actions. Nay, odd as it may appear, it is yet certain, that in many inftances our idea of the imaginary perfon may be more diftin&t and particular than that of the real one. Thus we often find, that the representation exhibited by Fancy, of the Figure of an Hero, whose actions had raised Admiration; I fay, we find that this reprefentation has been wide of the Truth, when we come either to fee the Original, or a faithful Copy of it: but our ideas of imaginary perfons are generally fo exact, that, upon feeing a groupe of these displayed on a plate, we are capable to give each its proper defignation, as foon as we obferve it, Thus Anger, Revenge, Defpair, Hope, &c. can be distinguished from each other almosft as eafily when they are copied by the pencil, as when we feel their Influence |