OR, SKETCHES, CRITICAL, NARRATIVE, AND POETICAL. BY NATHAN DRAKE, M.D. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. Delightful hours! O thus for ever flow; LANGHORNE, LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, STRAND. CONTENTS THIRD VOLUME. NO. PAGE. NUMBER XLI. Qui legitimum cupiet fecisse poëma, Cum tabulis animum censoris sumet honesti. HORATIUS. How often, and to what extent a favorite turn of expression in a celebrated poet, a Virgil, a Shakspeare, or a Milton, for instance, may be imitated, no critics, I believe, have yet attempted to decide. To copy, however, the style or diction of a great author, is certainly less servile than to retail hist thoughts, though clothed in more appropriate and more elegant language. In a modern bard, provided the imagery be new, no censure, perhaps, attaches to him, when his production is viewed in an insulated light, should he have adopted the admired, though well-known phraseology of a popular ancient, either of his own or any other country. But, as every disciple of the Muses has a claim to |