one and the fame work, not by Milton only, but alfo by Homer, Virgil, Lucan, and Shakespeare. Yet ftill these arts are different; different in their ends, and principles, and in the faculties of the mind to which they are respectively addreffed and it is easy to perceive, when a writer employs one, and when another.

III. A reason why tropes and figures are more necessary in fome forts of poetry, than in others, it is not difficult to affign. This depends on the condition of the fuppofed fpeaker, particularly on the state of his imagination and paffions. When the foul pines with forrow, or languishes in love, it keeps its view more steadily fixed on one or a few ideas, than when it is poffeffed with enthusiasm, or agitated by jealousy, revenge, indignation, anxiety, or any other turbulent emotion. In the former cafe it is inactive; in the latter, restless;

Magno curarum fluctuat æftu,

Atque animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit

illuc,

In partesque rapit varias, perque omnia verfat;

and therefore in the one cafe it will be occupied by few ideas, and in the other by many. The ftyle, therefore, of the amorous or mournful elegy, in order to be imitative of the language of forrow or defponding love, must be fimpler, and lefs diverfified by VOL. II. figures,

Oo

or of

figures, than that of the dithyrambic fong, any other poem in which the speaker is fuppofed to be greatly agitated.

I have heard the finest Öde in the world blamed for the boldness of its figures, and for what the critic was pleased to call obfcurity. He had, I fuppofe, formed his tafte upon Anacreon and Waller, whofe Odes are indeed very fimple, and would have been very abfurd, if they had not been fimple. But let us recollect the circumstances of A

nacreon, (confidered as the fpeaker of his own poetry), and of Gray's Welsh Bard. The former warbles his lays, reclining on a bed of flowers, diffolved in tranquillity and indolence, while all his faculties feem to be engroffed by one or a few pleasurable objects. The latter, juft efcaped from the maffacre of his brethren, under the complicated agitations of grief, revenge, and defpair; and furrounded with the fcenery of rocks, mountains, and torrents, ftupendous by nature, and now rendered hideous by defolation, imprecates perdition upon the bloody Edward; and, feized with prophetic enthusiasm, foretells in the most alarming strains, and typifies by the most dreadful images, the difafters that were to overtake his family and defcendents. If perfpicuity and fimplicity be natural in the fongs of Anacreon, as they certainly are, a figurative ftyle and defultory compofition are no lefs natural in this inimitable performance of Gray. And if

real

real prophecy muft always be fo obfcure, as not to be fully understood till it is accomplished, because otherwise it would interfere with the free agency of man, that poem which imitates the style of prophecy, must also, if natural, be to a certain degree obfcure; not indeed in the images or words, but in the allufions. And it is in the allufions only, not in the words or images, (for these are most emphatical and picturefque), that the poem partakes of obscurity; and even its allufions will hardly feem obfcure to those who are acquainted with the hiftory of England. Thofe critics, therefore, who find fault with this poem, because it is not fo fimple as the fongs of Anacreon, or the loveverfes of Shenstone and Waller, may as well blame Shakespeare, because Othello does not fpeak in the fweet and fimple language of Defdemona. Horace has no where attempted a theme of fuch animation and fublimity, as this of Gray; and yet Horace, like his master Pindar, is often bold in his tranfitions, and in the ftyle of many of his odes extremely figurative. But this we not only excufe, but applaud, when we confider, that in thofe odes the affumed character of the speaker is enthusiasm, which in all its operations is fomewhat violent, and muft therefore give a peculiar vehemence both to thought and to language.

On what principle, then, it may be faid, are we to look for fimplicity and exact ar002 rangement,

rangement, in the ftyle of an Epic poem ? Why is not the language of the Iliad and Eneid as figurative as that of Pindar ?—To this I anfwer, firft, That the affumed character of the Epic poet is calm inspiration, the effects whereof upon the mind must be supposed to be very different from those produced by enthusiasm or prophetic rapture; regularity and compofure being as effential to the former, as wildness and vehemence are to the latter: and, fecondly, That a very figurative style continued through a long work becomes tirefome; and therefore, that all poems of great length ought to be methodical in the plan, and fimple in the execution. Abrupt tranfition, boldnefs of figure, and thoughts elevated almoft to extravagance, may please in a fhort poem; as the dainties of a banquet, and the fplendour of a triumph, may amufe for a day; but much feasting destroys health, and perpetual glare and tumult ftupify the fenfes and the high lyric ftyle continued through many pages would fatigue the attention, confound the judgement, and bewilder the fancy.

CHAP,

CHA P. II,

Of the Sound of Poetical Language,

IT

T is folly to prefer found to fenfe. Yet the ear, like every other perceptive faculty, is capable of gratification; and therefore to the found of words fome regard is to be had, even in profe. For ill-founding language can never be agreeable, either to the hearer or to the speaker; and of different modifications of well-founding language fome will be found to be more agreeable than others. It is the business of the poet to make his ftyle as agreeable, and confequently as pleafing to the ear, as the nature of the fubject will allow. And to the harmony of language it behoves him, more than any other writer, to attend; as it is more especially his concern to render his work pleafurable. In fact we find, that no poet was ever popular who did not poffefs the art of harmonious compofition.

What I have to fay on the fubject of Poetical Harmony may be referred to one or other of these heads; Sweetness, Measure, and Imitation.

I. In order to give fweetness to language,