that the authour perceived the possibility of advancing the credit of his production, by giving it more of an epical form. Those sentiments, which might have discouraged such a project, had been made publick sometime before this intention had been formed, and if they had been remembered by their authour would have had little weight while he was occupied with the idea of realizing a project which was calculated to become more a favourite with any poet. However this may be, the writer's own sentiments, standing as they do at present, must afford no small confirmation to the opinion which is now risqued, that the authour of the Henriade, so far from demonstrating the feasibility of that undertaking which his unprejudiced judgment once condemned, has, by his failure in it, left a standing proof of the justness of those rules to which he is observed to run counter.

The progress of the epick poet, being thus restricted from passing into either extreme of truth or fiction, is left no alternative but that of taking a middle course between both; and this brings our inquiry to that last case in an epical subject which has been proposed for consideration.

III. And yet this single case to which epick poetry becomes thus limited, does not possess the merely negative excellence of being good, because there is no better, since. it is adopted where there is no liberty of choice. Lying equally between the extremes of reality and invention, it possesses their respective perfections, and thus exhibits every distinctive mark of intrinsick perfection. From the authour of every work we demand that he should aim at the greatest degree, and highest kind of gratification, in his compositions, which is suitable to productions of their kind and nature. But the pleasure which historical and romantick poetry is capable of exciting lies under considerable restrictions. An historical poem, from the circumstance of being confined to the narration of recent and authentick facts, seems composed with the express object of securing the truth and dignity at the expense of the interest of the subject. A poetical romance, on the other hand, from the circumstance of being excluded from adopting an historical subject, seems laid under the necessity of supplying the want of truth and importance, by heightening the interest of its fable. Of course, the pleasure which the one species of

composition affords in the perusal, partially excludes that which we feel in reading the other; we have most interest in the one, most truth and importance in the other. This being the case, either must be deficient in that general pleasure which we can conceive to arise from their union, and which we experience in turning to them in succession. It is this mixed sensation of delight which arises from a happy union of both, that is to be sought in the poetical epopee; and this species of composition, being thus constituted of contrary qualities, becomes capable of imparting that greatest degree and highest kind of gratification of which the art is susceptible. And this union of such discordant ingredients, the works of some favourate artists have not only enabled us to know are capable of being realized, but have taught us to feel in the most exquisite perfection.

The epick poet being thus vested with powers to enter the different provinces of the historical and romantick compositions, becomes in some degree exposed to the difficulties which they have respectively to encounter. Of such a stubborn nature is the historical part of the materials admitted in his compositions that it will not yield to alte

ration and yet to the completion of the plan of that composition which is professedly the most perfect of the works of invention, and which ought to be improved until it approaches that highest degree of excellence which conception can form, no inconsiderable alteration of some incidents in the story must be necessary. In the difficulty that arises hence the poet is left but one expedient. He must take a subject of a remote period. He must, in fact, select it with a partiality similar to what the eye feels in resting on such objects as from their remoteness excite no doubt with respect to their existence; but of which, while the outline is perfectly defined, much of the peculiarities of their form, their colour, and their local circumstances, are left to employ the imagination by exercising it in conjecture. A subject chosen under these circumstances, while it secures to his composition all that importance which it can receive from truth, imparts to it all that interest which it can derive from invention.

That intervening point in the history of any people between the suppression of fabulous narration, and the establishment of authentick record, when the mind is suspended

between reason and credulity, seems to be the most promising period from which a poet is likely to be furnished with such a subject. As this is a period which must be necessarily semi-barbarous, it is not only freed from the restraint of that affectation and refinement in manners which are so incompatible with the general nature of the higher poetry, but it seems most calculated to produce those important and daring exploits, which are best adapted to a species of composition professedly heroical. And as the character of such a period is that of being credulous, it must receive from this circumstance such a tincture of superstition, as will give it a connection with those supernatural agents, and that marvellous imagery, which add so much. to our delight, by blending with that emotion a mixture of admiration. In the consideration of the antiquity of such a subject is included all that sacred awe which the mind feels in recurring to times that are past, all that solemn delight which it experiences in contemplating the venerable interest that surrounds and rests over human gran ur its decline.

But if the epick poet is laid under certain restrictions from which the romantick poet