alive the attention of his reader, by fine and vivid allusions and similies, and by occasional descriptions illustrative of his subject; and Shakspeare's rich mind derives embellishments from every thing in nature and art, by means of the slightest associations. There is a pretty thought in Don Quixote to this effect, which I formerly transcribed— "La poesia, a mi paracer, es como una doncella tierna, y depoca edad, y en todo extremo hermosa, a quien tienen cuidado de enriqueceur, pulir & adornar otras muchas doncellas, que son todas las otras cientias, y ella ha de servir. de todas, y todas se han de autorizar con ella." "Poetry may be compared to a beautiful young female, attended by several other females, whose care and occupation it is to dress and adorn her; these she regularly employs in her service, while they on their part derive credit and estimation from her." To prescribe rules for the production of beautiful thoughts in poetry, would subject the empiric who made the attempt to well merited ridicule. Something of this kind was however attempted some years ago in Byshe's Art of Poetry, where a kind of common-place book is exhibited of poetic ideas suited to a variety of subjects. The writer, however, who proceeded upon such a plan would be a plagiary and not a poet. It is extensive reading and observation that must treasure up a stock of materials, and it is genius alone that can form those fine, and fanciful, ands triking combinations, that can enchant the reader. Unquestionably the taste, nay perhaps the imagination may be cultivated and improved; but this can only be done by reading most attentively the best models, discriminating, marking, and dwelling upon their beauties. Seneca, in one of his epistles, strongly recommends the reading over and over a few good books in preference to the busy and cursory perusal of many. To a young poet 1 am. sure this is the soundest advice that can be given. The really good poets are few, and to these he ought to give such attention as to be master of their style of thinking, of every peculiar form in which they express themselves. No critical rules can give genius. They are rather calculated to restrain and govern its eccentricities. They may prevent faults, but cannot invent beauties. Perhaps what I have observed on the sublime and pathetic may be of some use in pointing out the nature of these sources of fine thought; but what is the use of knowing from what country a valuable commodity is procured, unless you have the means of making it your own? I shall therefore employ both my own time and yours better in pointing out some of the errors into which young writers are liable to fall, than in attempting to "Write dull receipts how poems should be made." 1st. Every ornamental thought in poetry should flow naturally out of the subject. It should not, in the hacknied phrase, “smell of the lamp." It should be a volunteer, not pressed into the service. In Virgil himself, whom as a poet I almost idolize, I seem sometimes to have discovered this fault. The beautiful lines, which on a former occasion I quoted from the 3d Georgic I have always thought misplaced, and much too good for the subject. But in inferior wri ters you will frequently find thoughts forcibly introduced as from a common place-book, which are very remotely connected with the subject. In Shakspeare's Hamlet, the fine soliloquy "To be or not to be," &c. seems forced in, as there is no other part in the action where it is noticed that Hamlet entertained a notion of destroying himself, and it is altogether inconsistent with his engagements to the ghost of his father. 2d. Trite and common thoughts, or reflexions, however moral they may be, instead of beauties are blemishes. In poetry we expect novelty and ingenuity both in thought and expression. When the poet says of Shak speare "Each change of many colour'd life he drew, We find not less of novelty than of grandeur in the image; and in this of Shakspeare "Cowards die many times before their deaths, The sublimity of the thought is rather in creased than diminished by the ingenious turn which is given to it. Satan's address to the Sun in Milton is finely imagined, and the turn which is given to it, while it is highly in character, enlivens by a kind of emotion of surprize "O thou that with surpassing glory crown'd, To shew how vulgar and common images debase a subject, I need only quote the following lines from no less a poet than Dryden- "The rage of jealousy then fir'd his soul, Again 66 Nought profits him to save abandon'd life, "Nor vomits upward aid, nor downward laxative." IBID. No man excelled Mr. Pope in ingenuity of thought 1 |