THESE obfervations on Thomson, which however would not have been fo large, if as in the following lines, whofe greatest beauty is that hinted above, a fimple enumeration of the appearances of nature, and of what is actually to be feen at fuch a time. They are not unworthy the correct and pure Tibullus. They were writ ten by the late Mr. Robert Bedingfield, author of the Education of Achilles, a poem, in Dodfley's Mifcellanies. Vefpere fub verno, tandem actis imbribus, æther These are the particular circumstances that usually fucceed a fhower at that season, and yet these are new and untouched by any other writer. The Carmina Quadragefimalia, volume the fecond, printed at Oxford 1748, from whence this is tranfcribed, (page 14,) contain many copies of exquifite defcriptive poetry, in a genuine claffical ftyle. See particularly The Rivers, page 4. The Morning, page 12. The House of Care, from Spenfer, page 16. The Mahometan paradise, page 32. The Trees of different foils, page 63. The Bird's Neft, page 82. Geneva, page 89. Virgil's tomb, page 97. The Indian, page 118. The Houfe of Difcord, page 133. Columbus first difcovering the land of the West Indies, page 125, &c. there there had been already any confiderable criticifm on his character, might be still augmented by an examination and developement. of the beauties in the Loves of the birds, in SPRING, verfe 580. A view of the torrid zone in SUMMER, verfe 626. The rife of fountains and rivers in AUTUMN, verfe 781. A man perishing in the snows, in WINTER, verse 277. The wolves defcending from the Alps, and a view of winter within the polar circle, verfe 809, which are all of them highlyfinished originals, excepting a few of those blemishes intimated above. WINTER is in my apprehenfion the most valuable of these four poems; the fcenes of it, like thofe of 11 Penferofo of Milton, being of that awful, folemn, and penfive kind, on which a great genius beft delights to dwell. POPE it seems was of opinion, that defcriptive poetry is a compofition as abfurd as a feaft made up of fauces: and I know many other persons that think meanly of it. I will not prefume to fay it is equal, either in dignity or utility, to thofe compofitions that lay open the internal conftitution of man, and that IMITATE characters, manners, and fen timents. I may however remind fuch contemners of it, that, in a fifter-art, landfchapepainting claims the very next rank to historypainting; being ever preferred to fingle portraits, to pieces of still-life, to droll figures, to fruit and flower-pieces; that Titian thought it no diminution of his genius, to fpend much of his time in works of the former fpecies; and that, if their principles lead them to condemn Thomson, they must alfo condemn the Georgics of Virgil, and the greatest part of the noblest descriptive poem extant, I mean that of Lucretius. 1 WE are next to fpeak of the LYRIC pieces of POPE. He used to declare, that if Dryden had finished a translation of the Iliad, he would not have attempted one after so great a master; he might have faid with more propriety, I will not write a muficode* after Alexander's Feaft, which the * He wrote this Qde at the request of Steele. variety variety and harmony of its numbers, and the beauty and force of its images, have conspired to place at the head of modern lyric compofitions. This of Mr. POPE is, how ever, indifputably the fecond of the kind," propior tamen primo quam tertio," to * The inferiority of Addifon's Ode, to POPE's on this fubject is manifeft and remarkable. What profaic tameness and infipidity do we meet with in the following lines? Cecilia's name does all our numbers grace, From every voice the tuneful accents fly, In foaring trebles now it rises high, And now it finks and dwells upon the base. This almoft defcends to burlefque, What follows is hardly rhyme, and furely not poetry: Confecrate the place and day, To mufic and Cecilia. Mufic the greatest good that mortals know. Mufic can noble bents impart. There follows in this ftanza, which is the third, a description of a subject very trite, Orpheus drawing the beafts about him. POPE fhewed his fuperior judgment in taking no notice of this old story, and selecting a more new, as well as more striking incident, in the life of Orpheus. It was the custom of this time, for almost every rhymer to try his hand in an ode on St. Cecilia; we' find many defpicable rhapsodies, so called, in Tonfon's Mifcellanies. We have there alfo preferved another, and an earlier ode, of Dryden on this fubject. One stanza of which I cannot forbear inferting in this note. It was fet to mufic, 1687, by I. Baptifta Draghi. to use an expreffion of Quintilian. The first stanza is almoft a perfect concert of itfelf; every different Inftrument is defcribed and illuftrated, in numbers, that admirably represent, and correfpond, to its different qualities and genius. The beginning of the fecond stanza, on the power which mufic exerts over the paffions, is a little flat, and by no means equal to the conclufion of that ftanza. The animating fong that Orpheus fung to the Argonauts, copied from Valerius What paffion cannot mufic raife and quell! To worship that celestial found: Lefs than a god they thought there could not dwell, That spoke fo fweetly and fo well. What paffion cannot mufic raife and quell! This is fo complete and engaging a hiftory-piece, that I knew a person of taste who was refolved to have it executed, if an artist could have been found, on one fide of his falloon. In which cafe, faid he, the painter has nothing to do, but to fubftitute colours for words, the defign being finifhed to his hands. The reader doubtlefs obferves the fine effect of the repetition of the last line; as well as the ftroke of nature, in making thefe rude hearers imagine fome god lay concealed in this firft musician's inftrument. Flaccus, |