the intense beams of noon, the absence of all vestige of vegetation, the undulating ocean of sand swept by the rising whirlwind, present a scenery of gloomy grandeur strictly appropriate to the country. A single group appears upon the canvass, composed of laden camels, so emphatically called in the East the ships of the desart, pursuing their painful march through a cloud of dust, and the driver Hassan, with his single cruise of water, and fan made of feathers, who is represented striking his breast with his hand, according to the eastern expression of strong emotion, before he begins his complaint. The scene is highly finished, and shows what advantage might be gained to this kind of Poetry, by studying the more picturesque features of nature. This piece is a monodrame, but the apostrophe to the camels, and the introduction of the speech of Hassan's mistress, give it sufficient dramatic effect. The danger incurred in these desarts from poisonous reptiles and wild beasts is strikingly impressed:

"What, if the lion in his rage

1 meet!

"Oft in the dust I view his printed feet."

The images in the two following lines seem to be borrowed from the 5th chapter of Matthew,

"The lily, Peace, outshines the silver store,

"And life is dearer than the golden ore."

There is a prettiness in the prayer of Zara, that the blasts of the desart might be weak as her rejected sighs, which is unworthy of the rest. COLLINS had a fine imagination, but he did not possess the language of passion. There seems also a small impropriety in Hassan's bearing the cruise of water himself, when he was master of laden camels.

The subject of the next Eclogue is truly pastoral, A young shepherdess making garlands of such flowers as, though they are the product of our gardens only, are known to grow wild in many parts of Persia, is discovered by Abbas the Great, sultan of that country, who falls in love with her, and leads her to his palace. Filled with awe, no less than pleasure,

she complies with the wishes of the monarch; but, like Proserpine in the valley of Enna, looks back with fond regret on the peaceful scenes of her happy life;

"Oft as she went, she turn'd her backward view, "And bade that crook and bleating flock adieu."

A pretty incident is added, that she makes an annual visit to the place of her former habitation, and persuades her royal lover to accompany her in a rural festival, in which they lay aside the pomp of the court for the garb and simple fare of the surrounding shepherds. As the narrative is put into the mouth of another Georgian maiden, who relates it among her companions, there should have been some return to her at the close of the. piece, without which we are apt to forget that Emyra and not the Poet is the narrator.

AGIB AND SECANDER is in every respect the most finished of these Pastorals. It is the only one which is in dialogue. It is full of lively description, and mixes the sweetness of the Pastoral with the

keener sensations of the Dramá or the Epic. The opening is natural, and immediately interests us in the fate of the speakers. The subject is new, interesting, and strictly belonging to the life of shepherds in those countries, which are unhappily exposed to the incursions of bordering tribes of freebooters. Two Circassian shepherds flying from the sudden attack of a horde of Tartars, pursue their journey by midnight for some time, "Where wildering fear and desperate sorrow led;" after a while, one of them, exhausted by the length of the way, intreats the other to stop, on which a dialogue ensues, descriptive of the miseries of the inhabitants. At length they descry the approach of the enemy.

loud along the vale was heard

"A shriller shriek, and nearer fires appear'd." This naturally puts an end to the dialogue; they rise and continue their flight. Circassia has the reputation of producing the most beautiful women of the east. This gives the Poet a favorable opportu

nity of contrasting the soft scenes of innocence, love and pleasure, with the affecting ones of wasted harvests, citron groves destroyed, villages in flames, and all the destructive ravages of predatory war. The two following lines are uncommonly musical, and have an indescribable charm in their versification,

"In vain she boasts her fairest of the fair,

"Their eyes' blue languish and their golden hair." He adds

"Those hairs the Tartar's cruel hand shall rend." With equal truth of penciling does he mark" the villain Arab prowling for his prey."

Some feeble or unmeaning epithets might be pointed out in this and in the other Eclogues; and other marks may be perceived of a juvenile poet; but on the whole, they may be considered as spirited sketches of a new kind of Pastoral, which is susceptible of unlimited variety and improvement.

The reputation of COLLINS is chiefly built upon his Odes. These were published in the year 1746. They are intitled ODES DESCRIPTIVE AND ALLE