withstanding what a learned writer has advanced to the contrary. Nothing, certainly, could be more greatly conceived, or more adequately expreffed, than the image in the last couplet.

That deception, fometimes used in rhetoric and poetry, which prefents us with an object or sentiment contrary to what we expected, is here introduced to the greatest advantage:

"Farewel the youth, whom fighis 'could not detain,

Whom Zara's breaking heart implor'd in vain!
Yet, as thou go'ft, may every blast arise-
Weak and unfelt as thefe rejected fighs!

But this, perhaps, is rather an artificial prettiness, than a real, or natural beauty.

THAT innocent and native fimplicity of manners, which, in the firft eclogue, was allowed to conftitute the happiness of love, is here beautifully defcribed in its effects. The fultan of Perfia marries a Georgian fhepherdefs, and finds in her embraces that genuine felicity which unperverted nature alone can beftow. The most natural and beautiful parts of this eclogue are those where the fair fultana refers with fo much pleasure to her paftoral amusements, and thofe fcenes of happy innocence in which fhe had paffed her early years; particularly when, upon her first departure,

Of as she went, fhe backward turn'd her view,

And bade that crook and bleating flock adieu."

This picture of amiable fimplicity reminds one of that paffage, where Proferpine, when carried off by Pluto, regrets the lofs of the flowers the has been gathering. "Collecti flores tunicis cecidere remiffis : Tantaque fimplicitas puerilibus adfuit annis, Hæc quoque virgineum movit jactura dolorem."

THE beautiful, but unfortunate country, where the scene of this pathetic eclogue is laid, had been recently torn in pieces by the depredations of its favage neighbours, when, Mr. Collins fo affectingly described its misfortunes. This ingenious man had not only a pencil to pourtray, but a heart to feel for the miseries of mankind, and it is with the utmost tenderness and humanity he enters into the narrative of Circaffia's ruin, while he realizes the scene, and brings the prefent drama before us. Of every circumftance that could poffibly contribute to the tender effect this paftoral was defigned to produce, the poet has availed himself with the utmost art and addrefs. Thus he prepares the heart to pity the diftreffes of Circaffia, by reprefenting it as the scene of the happieft love.

"In fair Circaffia, where, to love inclin'd,

Each fwain was bleft, for every maid was kind."

To give the circumftances of the dialogue a more affecting folemnity, he makes the time midnight, and defcribes the two fhepherds in the very act of flight from the deftruction that swept over their country :

"Sad o'er the dews, two brother fhepherds fled,

Where wildering fear and defperate forrow led:"

There is a beauty and propriety in the epithet wildering, which ftrikes us more forcibly, the more we confider it.

The opening of the dialogue is equally happy, natural, and unaffected; when one of the fhepherds, weary and overcome with the fatigue of flight, calls upon his companion to review the length of way they had paffed. This is, certainly, painting from nature, and the thoughts, however obvious, or deftitute of refinement, are perfectly in character. But, as the clofeft purfuit of nature is the fureft way to excellence in general, and to fublimity in particular, in poetical description, so we find that this fimple fuggeftion of the fhepherd is not unattended with magnificence. There is grandeur and variety in the landskip he defcribes:

"And first review that long-extended plain,

And yon wide groves, already paft with pain!
Yon ragged cliff, whofe dangerous path we try'd!
And laft this lofty mountain's weary fide!"

There is, in imitative harmony, an art of expreffing a flow and difficult movement by adding to the ufual number of pauses in a verfe. This is obfervable in the line that defcribes the afcent of the mountain :

And laft | this lofty mountain's || weary fide ||.

Here we find the number of pauses, or mufical bars, which, in an heroic verse, is commonly two, increafed to three.

The liquid melody, and the numerous sweetness of expreffion in the following defcriptive lines is almost inimitably beautiful:

"Sweet to the fight is Zabran's flowery plain,

And once by nymphs and fhepherds lov'd in vain !
No more the virgins fhall delight to rove
By Sargis' banks, or Irwan's fhady grove,
On Tarkie's mountain catch the cooling gale,
Or breathe the fweets of Aly's flowery vale.

Nevertheless in this delightful landskip there is an obvious fault: there is no diftinction between the plain of Zabran, and the vale of Aly: they are both flowery, and confequently undiverfified. This could not proceed from the poet's want of judgment, but from inattention: it had not occurred to him that he had employed the epithet flowery twice within fo fhort a compafs; an overfight which those who are accustomed to poetical, or, indeed, to any other fpecies of compofition, know to be very poffible.

Nothing can be more beautifully conceived, or more pathetically expreffed, than the fhepherd's apprehenfions for his fair country-women, expofed to the ravages of the invaders.

"In vain Circaffia boafts her fpicy groves,
For ever fam'd for pure and happy loves:
In vain the boafts her faireft of the fair,

Their eyes' blue languish, and their golden hair!
Thofe eyes in tears their fruitlefs grief shall send;

Thofe hairs the Tartar's cruel hand fhall rend."

There is, certainly, fome very powerful charm in the liquid melody of founds. The editor of thefe poems could never read or hear the following verfe repeated, without a degree of pleasure otherwife entirely unaccountable:

"Their eyes' blue languifh, and their golden hair.”

Such are the Oriental Eclogues, which we leave with the fame kind of anxious pleafure, we feel upon a temporary parting with a beloved friend.

THE

HE genius of Collins was capable of every degree of excellence in lyric poetry, and perfectly qualified for that high province of the Mufe. Poffeffed of a native ear for all the varieties of harmony and modulation, fufceptible of the finest feelings of tendernefs and humanity, but, above all, carried away by that high enthufiafm, which gives to imagination its ftrongeft colouring, he was, at once, capable of foothing the ear with the melody of his numbers, of influencing the paffions by the force of his pathos, and of gratifying the fancy by the luxury of his description.

In confequence of thefe powers, but more particularly, in confideration of the laft, he chofe fuch fubjects for his lyric effays as were moft favourable for the indulgence of defcription and allegory; where he could exercife his powers in moral and perfonal painting; where he could exert his invention in conferring attributes on images or objects already new known, and defcribed by a determinate number of characteristics; where he might give an uncommon eclat to his figures, by placing them in happier attitudes, or in more advantageous lights, and introduce new forms from the moral and intellectual world into the fociety of imperfonated beings.

Such, no doubt, were the privileges which the poet expected, and fuch were the advantages he derived from the defcriptive and allegorical nature of his themes.

It seems to have been the whole induftry of our author (and it is, at the fame time, almost all the claim to moral excellence his writings can boaft) to promote the influence of the focial virtues, by painting them in the faireft and happieft lights.

"Melior fieri tuendo,"

would be no improper motto to his poems in general, but of his lyric poems it seems to be the whole moral tendency and effect. If therefore, it fhould appear to fome readers that he has been more induftrious to cultivate defcription than fentiment; it may be obferved, that his defcriptions themfelves are fentimental, and answer the whole end of that fpecies of writing, by embellishing every feature of virtue, and by conveying, through the effects of the pencil, the fineft moral leffons to the mind.

Horace fpeaks of the fidelity of the ear in preference to the uncertainty of the eye; but if the mind receives conviction, it is, certainly, of very little importance through what medium, or by which of the fenfes, it is conveyed. The impreffions left on the imagination may, poffibly, be thought lefs durable than the depofits of memory, but it may very well admit of a queftion, whether a conclufion of reafon, or an impreffion of imagination, will fooneft make its way to the heart. A moral precept, conveyed in words, is only an account of truth in its effects; a moral picture is truth exemplified; and which is moft likely to gain upon the affections, it may not be diffi

cult to determine.

This, however, must be allowed, that those works approach the nearest to perfection which unite thefe powers and advantages; which at once influence the imagination, and engage the memory; the former by the force of animated and ftriking defcription, the latter by a brief, but harmonious conveyance of precept: thus, while the heart is VOL. VII.

N

influenced through the operation of the paffions, or the fancy, the effect, which might otherwife have been tranfient, is fecured by the co-operating power of the memory, which treafures up in a fhort aphorifm the moral fcene.

This is a good reafon, and this, perhaps, is the only reafon that can be given, why our dramatic performances fhould generally end with a chain of couplets. In thefe the moral of the whole piece is ufually conveyed; and that afliftance which the memory borrows from rhyme, as it was probably the original cause of it, gives it usefulness and propriety even there.

After thefe apologies for the deferiptive turn of the following odes, fomething remains to be faid on the origin and ufe of allegory in poetical compofition.

By this we are not to understand the trope in the fchools, which is defined “aliud "verbis, aliud fenfu oftendere," and of which Quintilian fays, "ufus eft, ut tristia dicamus melioribus verbis, aut bonæ rei quædam contrariis fignificemus, &c." It is not the verbal, but the fentimental allegory, not allegorical expreffion (which, indeed, might come under the term of metaphor) but allegorical imagery, that is here in question.

When we endeavour to trace this fpecies of figurative fentiment to its origin, we find it coeval with literature itfelf. It is generally agreed that the most ancient productions are poetical, and it is certain that the most ancient poems abound with allegorical imagery.

If, then, it be allowed that the firft literary productions were poetical, we fhall have little or no difficulty in difcovering the origin of allegory.

At the birth of letters, in the tranfition from hieroglyphical to literal expreffion, it is not to be wondered if the cuftom of expreffing ideas by perfonal images, which had fo long prevailed, fhould fill retain its influence on the mind, though the use of letters had rendered the practical application of it fuperfluous. Those who had been accustomed to exprefs ftrength by the image of an elephant, fwiftness by that of a panther, and courage by that of a lion, would make no fcruple of fubftituting, in letters, the fymbols for the ideas they had been used to reprefent.

Here we plainly fee the origin of allegorical expreffion, that it arofe from the ashes of hieroglyphics; and if to the fame caufe we should refer that figurative boldness of style and imagery which diftinguifh the oriental writings, we fhall, perhaps, conclude more justly than if we fhould impute it to the fuperior grandeur of eaftern genius.

From the fame fource with the verbal, we are to derive the fentimental allegory, which is nothing more than a continuation of the metaphorical or fymbolical expreffion of the feveral agents in an action, or the different objects in a scene.

The latter moft peculiarly comes under the denomination of allegorical imagery; and in this fpecies of allegory we include the imperfonation of paffions, affections, virtues and vices, &c. on account of which, principally, the following odes were properly termed by their author, allegorical.

With refpect to the utility of this figurative writing, the fame arguments that have been advanced in favour of defcriptive poetry, will be of weight likewife here. It is, indeed, from imperfonation, or, as it is commonly termed, perfonification, that poetical defcription borrows its chief powers and graces. Without the aid of this, moral and intellectual painting would be flat and unanimated, and even the scenery of material objects would be dull without the introduction of fictitious life.

Thefe obfervations will be most effectually illuftrated by the fublime and beautiful odes that occafioned them; in those it will appear how happily this allegorical painting may be executed by the genuine powers of poetical genius, and they will not fail to prove its force and utility by paffing through the imagination to the heart.

The propriety of invoking Pity through the mediation of Euripides is obvious.That admirable poet had the keys of all the tender paffions, and, therefore, could not but ftand in the highest efteem with a writer of Mr. Collins's fenfibility. He did, indeed, admire him as much as Milton, profeffedly did, and probably for the fame reafon; but we do not find that he has copied him fo closely as the laft mentioned poet has fometimes done, and particularly in the opening of Samfon-Agoniftes, which is an evident imitation of the following paffage in the Phoeniffæ.

The "

eyes of dewy light" is one of the happieft ftrokes of imagination, and may be ranked among thofe expreffions which

Suffex, in which county the Arun is a fmall river, had the honour of giving birth to Otway as well as to Collins: both these poets, unhappily, became the objects of that pity by which their writings are diftinguifhed. There was a fimilitude in their genius and in their fufferings. There was a refemblance in the misfortunes and in the diifipation of their lives; and the circumftances of their death cannot be remembered without pain.

The thought of painting in the temple of Pity the hiftory of human misfortunes, and of drawing the fcenes from the tragic Muse, is very happy, and in every respect worthy the imagination of Collins.

ODE TO FEAR.

Mr. Collins, who had often determined to apply himself to dramatic poetry, feems here, with the fame view, to have addreffed one of the principal powers of the drama, and to implore that mighty influence she had given to the genius of Shakespeare:

"Hither again thy fury deal,

Teach me but once like him to feel :
His cypress wreath my meed decree,
And I, O Fear, will dwell with thee!"

In conftruction of this nervous ode the author has fhewn equal power of judgment and imagination. Nothing can be more ftriking than the violent and abrupt abbreviation of the measure in the fifth and fixth verses, when he feels the ftrong influence of the power he invokes :