is thought to be a vifionary fhade, which can never be folded in their arms; disappointment raifes feelings too keen to be endured, and as if to fhow to what debasement humanity will bend, the intoxicating draught is taken and again repeated till every faculty of the foul is paralized and deadened.

Is a man anxious for wealth? His enterprifes may not fucceed, his exertions may fail; instead of gaining from defeat, new motives for industry, we often find him despondent and defpairing, and confirming his paft misfortunes by a ruinous intemperance. Do the amiable virtues of female excellence warm the heart of fenfibility? The affection, which is liberally bestowed, often meets not with any return; oftentimes diffimilarity of fortune, family or connexions prevents an union, various other caufes as frequently interfere, till hope languishes into defpair, and defpair drinks deep and often of intoxication's fpring.

Here have we to mourn the moft melancholy effects of this perverfion of nature. Youth with all his charms, "his blushing honours thick upon him," with all the talents, which had raised the fond expectation of friendship, and promised a future harvest of honour large as defire, by a cruel difappointment, fickens at future profpects; a gloomy defpondency hangs upon the mind, he drowns his feelings in fpirituous poison, and wears out a miferable existence, encumbered with all the diseases to which intoxication gives rife.

Can we obferve the wretched beings without a figh? Can we behold them without pity, and even while we cenfure their want of fortitude, we must commiferate their distress.

The melancholy intances of confirmed inebriation, which come within our knowledge and are known to proceed from disappointment, fhould teach us to guard our feelings, to restrain thofe emotions, which concentrate our ideas of happiness to a fingle point. It fhould teach us to bear the little ills of life with firmness, and be armed with fortitude for greater evils. It fhould lead us in difficulty to feek for confolation from that religion, which has a balm for every wound, and treats the fufferer with a delicate tenderness which no art can equal; that fpeaks in the mild voice of affection, " Come, ye weary and heavy laden, and I will give you reft."

MEMOIRS

OF

WILLIAM COLLINS;

WITH OBSERVATIONS ON HIS GENIUS AND WRITINGS. (Concluded from page 208.)

THE MANNERS. AN ODE.

FROM the fubject and fentiments of this ode, it seems not

improbable, that the author wrote it about the time, when he left the university; when weary with the pursuit of academical studies, he no longer confined himself to the search of theoretical knowledge, but commenced the scholar of humanity, to study nature in her works, and man in fociety.

The following farewel to fcience exhibits a very juft, as well as ftriking picture; for however exalted in theory the platonic doctrines may appear, it is certain that Platonifm and Pyrrhonifm are nearly allied:

"Farewel the porch, whose roof is seen
Arch'd with th' enlivening olive's green;
Where Science, prank'd in tissued veft,
By Reason, Pride, and Fancy dreft,
Comes like a bride, so trim array'd,

To wed with Doubt in Plato's fhade!"

When the mind goes in purfuit of vifionary fyftems, it is not far from the regions of doubt; and the greater its capacity to think abstractedly, to reafon and refine, the more it will be exposed to and bewildered in uncertainty. From an enthusiastic warmth of temper, indeed, we may for a while be encouraged to persist in some favourite doctrine, or to adhere to fome adopted fyftem; but when that enthusiasm, which is founded on the vivacity of the paffions, gradually cools and dies away with them, the opinions it fupported drop from us, and we are thrown upon the inhospitable shore of doubt.-A striking proof of the neceffity of fome moral rule of wisdom and virtue, and fome fyftem of happiness established by unerring knowledge and unlimited power.

In the poet's addrefs to Humour in this ode, there is one image of fingular beauty and propriety. The ornaments in the Vol. I. No. 6.

hair of Wit are of fuch a nature, and disposed in such a manner, as to be perfectly fymbolical and characteristic:

"Me too amidst thy band admit,

There, where the young-ey'd healthful Wit,
(Whofe jewels in his crifped hair

Are plac'd each other's beams to share,
Whom no delights from thee divide)
In laughter loos'd attends thy fide."

Nothing could be more expreffive of wit, which confists in a happy collifion of comparative and relative images, than this reciprocal reflection of light from the difpofition of the jewels. "O Humour, thou whose name is known

To Britain's favour'd ifle alone!"

The author could only mean to apply this to the time, when he wrote, fince other nations had produced works of great humour, as he himfelf acknowledges afterwards.

"By old Miletus, &c.

By all you taught the Tuscan maids, &c.”

The Milefian and Tufcan romances were by no means diftinguished for humour, but as they were the models of that fpecies of writing, in which humour was afterwards employed, they are, probably for that reafon only, mentioned here.

THE PASSIONS;

AN ODE FOR MUSIC.

IF the mufic, which was compofed for this ode, had equal merit with the ode itself, it must have been the most excellent performance of the kind, in which poetry and music have, in modern times, united. Other pieces of the fame nature have derived their greatest reputation from the perfection of the mufic that accompanied them, having in themselves little more merit, than that of an ordinary ballad: but in this we have the whole foul and power of poetry-Expreffion that, even without the aid of mufic, ftrikes to the heart; and imagery of power enough to tranfport the attention without the forceful alliance of correfponding founds! what, then, must have been the effect of these united!

It is very obfervable, that though the meafure is the fame, in which the mufical efforts of fear, anger and despair are defcrib

ed, yet by the variation of the cadence, the character and operation of each is ftrongly expreffed: thus particularly of Defpair :

With woful measures wan Defpair

Low fullen founds his grief beguil❜d,
A folemn, ftrange and mingled air,

'Twas fad by fits; by starts 'twas wild.

He must be a very unfkilful compofer, who could not catch the power of imitative harmony from thefe lines!

The picture of Hope, that follows this, is beautiful beyond imitation. By the united powers of imagery and harmony, that delightful being is exhibited with all the charms and graces, that pleasure and fancy have appropriated to her :

"Relegat, qui femel perecurrit;

Qui nunquam legit, legat."

"But thou, O Hope, whofe eyes so fair,
What was thy delighted measure?

Still it whisper'd promis'd pleasure,

And bade the lovely fcenes at distance hail!
Still would her touch the ftrain prolong,
And from the rocks, the woods, the vale,
She call'd on echo ftill thro' all the fong;
And where her sweetest theme she chofe,

A foft refponfive voice was heard at every close,

And Hope enchanted fmil'd, and wav'd her golden hair." In what an exalted light does the above ftanza place this great master of poetical imagery and harmony! what varied sweetnefs of numbers! what delicacy of judgment and expreffion! how characteristically does Hope prolong her ftrain, repeat her foothing clofes, call upon her affociate Echo for the fame purposes, and display every pleasing grace peculiar to her. "And hope enchanted smil'd, and wav'd her golden hair.”

“Legat, gui nunquam legit;

Qui femel percurrit, relegat."

The defcriptions of joy, jealoufy and revenge are excellent, though not equally fo; thofe of melancholy and cheerfulness are fuperior to every thing of the kind; and upon the whole, there may be very little hazard in afferting, that this is the fineft ode in the English language.

AN EPISTLE

TO SIR THOMAS HANMER, ON HIS EDITION OF

WORKS.

SHAKESPEAR'S

THIS poem was written by our author at the university, about the time when Sir Thomas Hanmer's pompous edition of Shakespear was printed at Oxford. If it has not fo much merit as the rest of his poems, it has still more than the subject deferves. The verfification is eafy and genteel, and the allufions, always poetical. The character of the poet Fletcher in particular is very juftly drawn in this epiftle.

DIRGE

IN CYMBELINE.

* *

ODE ON THE DEATH OF MR. THOMSON.

MR. COLLINS had kill to complain. Of that mournful melody and those tender images, which are the diftinguishing excellencies of fuch pieces as bewail departed friendship, or beauty, he was an almost unequalled mafter. He knew perfectly to exhibit fuch circumstances, peculiar to the objects, as awaken the influences of pity, and while, from his own great fenfibility, he felt what he wrote, he naturally addressed himself to the feelings of others.

To read fuch lines as the following, all beautiful and tender as they are, without correfponding emotions of pity, is furely impoffible.

"The tender thought on thee fhall dwell, Each lonely fcene fhall thee restore,

For thee the tear be duly fhed;

Belov'd, till life can charm no more;

And mourn'd, till Pity's felf be dead."

The ode on the death of Thomson seems to have been written in an excurfion to Richmond by water. The rural scenery has a proper effect in an ode to the memory of a poet, much of whose merit lay in defcriptions of the fame kind; and the appellations of "Druid" and "meek nature's child" are happily characteristic. For the better understanding of this ode, it is neceffary to remember, that Mr. Thomfon lies buried in the church of Richmond.