By this test Cowper is inferior to Thomson, who, with not less exactness, has more invention in his descriptions than the other and who has proved by his Castle of Indolence, that he possessed an high degree of that faculty.

The visionary talents of Collins rank him among poets of the true spirit. He saw ideal persons; and endowed them with ideal souls. He gazed upon those undefined glimmerings of imaginary Beings, which, like the glorious rays of the sunbeam, when it first comes in spring to make the heart glad, play involuntarily before the richly-stored, and highlyexcited mind. When he addresses Fear, he is worked up as if that powerful Passion was actually personified before him.

Burns also is in this respect superior to Cowper. Many of his poems, and songs, are upon imaginary subjects.

Tom Warton scarcely shews it, except in his Crusade. Notwithstanding it has been denied, his Suicide was probably suggested by the fate of Chatterton.

Gray had invention but he did not greatly exert it, except in his Bard.

There are poets, who call up clusters of associations by a judicious selection of leading circumstances just hinted. This gives reason to infer that their own minds revel in accompanying creations but they seem to shrink from the hazardous task of bringing them before the reader in the form of language. We give them credit therefore rather for what we think they might have done, than for what they have done.

X.

CENSURES OF POPE.

What are the objections, made by censurers to the moral character of Pope?

That he was bitter and envious:

That he was fond of money:

That he was deceitful:

That he had a mean admiration of the great; though he affected to despre them :

That he was vain of his wealth:

That he was full of little artifices:

That he was a secret plagiarist.

That he was fond of indecences, and his attachment to Martha Blount impure, etc. etc.

All, or most, of these, seem to be charges made with a total absence of candour.

His satirical temper, and his indulgence of a deeply vindictive spirit for petty injuries to his fame, appears to be the least defensible of his moral defects. It had been more noble to treat his assailants with an indignant contempt. He crushed them, and made them miserable with too unsparing an hand.

XI.

TRUE PRINCIPLES OF POETRY.

We have two kinds of existence, or consciousness

Material and Intellectual:

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It is with the latter, that

poetry is principally conversant.

Each is in truth in some degree mixed with the other but as the one, or the other predominates, or originates, it takes the character of the predominator, or originator.

For instance when outward objects are impressing themselves on the material frame, they operate on the sensorium, which thus stirs and associates the new impression to ideas already there.

And when the primary movement commences internally, it either recalls the images of what is material received at some former time from without, or admits the accession of their operation at the present moment from actual pre

sence.

The whole conduct of the mind arising out of Material Consciousness appears to be different from that arising out of Intellectual Consciousness! While the outward objects are actually present, they of course make their impression according to their real and exact forms. They will not allow the imagination to select, nor to add. They therefore incumber his taste; or confine his invention.

But when these things are recalled thro' the fancy in absence; when the movement originates with the mind, then the mind is the Master it selects, or it adds, as it chooses.

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The poet therefore, who attempts to describe objects from their actual presence, is sure to fail. There is an hardness, a confusion, a tiresome exactness about him, which destroys the charm of poetry.

In truth the attempt is a strong presumption that the attempter feels not the genuine poetical talent. Sometimes it may happen that one really qualified may be misled by bad advice, bad example, or wrong system but not often!

Perhaps it is the most distinctive mark of genius, that the movement ORIGINATES from within!

This is a reason, why genius rejects all prescribed subjects; or executes them badly.

The presence of an object upon the senses may be supposed to be a substitute for fancy but it is not!

There is a vast difference in the degree of strength and clearness, with which objects operate at the moment on different brains. Perhaps the memory of such objects may be in proportion to that strength and clearness but it does not follow that the fancy is necessarily attached to it: that is, the power of recalling the image itself with as much vividness as if present!

It is the vividness of emotion, caused by the presence of fancy, which is a peculiar and inseparable mark of genius. The skill of cold, labouring, Art can never be a substitute for it.

But does not the presence of the objects themselves create the same emotion? And why is this emotion not communicable thence, as well as from the power of the Fancy?

Perhaps the fire of an Intellectual image is more communicable to an Intellectual process, (which literary composition must be admitted to be), than the fire of a material image!

The mind moves by its own impulses. There is a spirit within, that often sets it at work. It then makes use of

:

such of its stores as the occasion demands and among them are images originally derived from material objects : but the presence of the material objects themselves has no concern with these movements.

It is disguting to reflect how far-fetched and mistaken criticism has led poets astray from the real objects of the Art! All the little technicalities, which were intended as adjuncts, have been deemed principals !

It is scarcely possible to describe, or delineate, all the degrees of Invention of which the human mind is ca-pable, or to which it is accustomed in its poetical occupations.

A highly fertile and grand genius imagines or invents new orders of Beings, and new worlds for their habitation. He creates them with grandeur, or beauty and he suits himself to the range and colour of belief, to which mankind are disposed. This is a task only undertaken by the very highest order of geniuş.

Another, taking humanity itself as the material of his production, and the existing earth as its scene, elevates it by new combinations; improves it by happy selection; interests by grandeur, or pathos of sentiment; surprizes by force of illustration, or delights by loftiness, force, harmony, and elegance of language. This is the result of a mind of splendid endowments always exercising itself in the cultivation and disposition of the requisite materials.

But there are numerous degrees of excellence far below these.

When there is not strength or perseverance to invent an whole story, detached portions, or single figures may be invented. Or the invention may he confined merely to the illustration; to the simile, figure, or metaphor: or