tive praife of avoiding their blemishes conftitute the fole merit of our prefent race of poets; it will be found perhaps ere the subject be concluded, that an emulation of their inventive powers, as well as a folicitude to escape their errors, is the proper foundation of their fame. As to the various poets who were coexiftent with our three immortal bards, though they occafionally exhibit very brilliant paffages, yet are they mingled with fuch a mass of obfcurity, vulgarity, obfcenity and colloquial barbarism, that he must be a very hardy critic indeed, who can venture to ftation them on a level with the modern votaries of the mufe.' P. 441. Shakespeare our champion allows to ftand unrivaled; yet he fays, not Shakespeare himself can vie with Otway in eliciting the tear of pity.' This affertion we think unfounded, and deem Otway inferior in pathos to Beaumont and Fletcher as well as to Shakespeare. To Milton Dr. Drake opposes Offian. The epic is confeffedly the most elevated and difficult province of the poetic art, and requires both confummate genius, and an intimate knowledge of the fcience, literature, manners and cuftoms, not only of the age in which the poet writes, but of the period alfo from whence he draws his fable. Homer, Virgil, Taffo and Milton feem to have poffeffed all the knowledge requifite for their elaborate and immortal productions, and though Offian, fuppofing thefe poems to have the antiquity they claim, lived, in an era comparatively barbarous, he was certainly the beft informed and moft ingenious chieftain of his age, and enjoyed the great advantage of defcribing scenes in which he himself was actually an important agent. an important agent. The defcriptions throughout the works of this bard are fo undeviatingly correct and fimple, fo appropriate to the period in which he is fupposed to have existed, that with many this alone is confidered as an irrefragable proof of their antiquity; and indeed, fhould it ever be fully afcertained that these poems are the entire produce of the prefent century, Mr. Macpherson must not only be efteemed as one of the first poets, but as exhibiting an attention and fkill in the prefervation of coftume hitherto unparalleled. Ancient or modern, . however, these poems must be viewed as pregnant with beauties of the highest rank; uniformly mild and generous in manners and fentiment, uniformly fimple, pathetic and fublime, vivid and pictorefque in imagery, in diction rapid, nervous and concife, they are alike calculated to melt and meliorate the heart, to elevate and fire the imagination. I do not hesitate to affirm that, if in fublimity the palm muft be allowed, and I think it must, to our great countryman, yet in the pathetic the Caledonian is far fuperior, not only to Milton, but to every other poet. Conceiving therefore, as I firmly do, that Fingal and Temora are folely indebted to Mr. Macpherfon, for their form, and for probably, a very confiderable portion of their matter, and as the bard under whofe name they are now published was totally unknown till within thefe forty years, I have placed them, and with indeed there to place the whole collection which is in fact truly epic, at the head of the first department, where I am confident they need not fear comparison with any fpecimens of our elder poetry.' P. 457. The question is not whether Offian poffeffed the fame fuperiority in information and genius to his contemporaries, that Homer, Virgil, Taffo, and Milton did, but whether that information and that genius were equally applicable to epic poetry. To the epic poet variety of knowledge is neceffary; but Offian's knowledge was bounded by his own mountain-wilds. He knew every appearance of the celeftial bodies; he had watched the fummer brook and the winter torrent; he could recall to his mind the land mist and the glories of the ocean: but these images are foon exhausted; and, however accurately he defcribes them in every poffible difference, they foon pall the imagination. It is not with Offian as it is with Homer, Taffo, Ariofto, Milton, and Spenfer: we do not read on with fuch delight as to forget how the hours pafs; there is a famenefs in almost every page; every where it is beautiful; but it is ftill the moon and the mift and the torrent. Dr. Warton, with the great names of Shakespeare and Milton, has joined that of Spenfer. What modern poem will Dr. Drake weigh in the balance against the Faery Queen? Yet he fays, in the epic field, having an Offian or rather a Macpherson to produce, we are nearly upon a level.' Of the modern epics Hole's Arthur is the only one wild enough to be comparable with Spenfer; but the northern enchantment is already neglected, and it is ufelefs to invite attention to a poem `which cannot command it by merit. That in the inferior walks of poetry we have excelled our forefathers.cannot be doubted: but many of the names with which Dr. Drake has lengthened his lift will never reach pofterity. We were surprised to find Drayton's Nymphidia ranked among paftoral eclogues. Our author's remarks on this clafs of poems poffefs more truth than novelty. The annexed specimen has little merit to recommend it, and exhibits fome of the very faults which the writer has cenfured. Why are the interlocutors, who are equally removed from vulgarity or confiderable refinement,' to be, styled fhepherds, and called Edwin and Orlando? We would, by all poffible modulation. of voice, favour poetry; but it is not poffible to read the two first lines of this extract into harmony. 'Calm and still grey eve came on, and filence Girt the valley, fave when the bird of night, Sung to the lift'ning moon her fweet complaint, For, mid the cloudlefs vault of heav'n, full orb'd, At this fequefter'd and this lonely hour, A time-worn abbey ftood, its grey-ting'd stone The wood's green fhade; here careless stretch'd it's banks The first a ftranger to these fylvan scenes, When fudden rufh'd upon their wond'ring view In flowing robe array'd of fnowy white, Then to the heavens, in that bright moisture bath'd, In P. 239. So much more eafy is it to criticife well than to write tolerably! The tale of Wolkmar too much resembles the language of Offian. In that of Henry Fitz-Owen, the imagery is rather difgufting than terrific; the circumftances of terror crowd too rapidly upon the mind to be understood and felt. The effect of contraft from the caverns of horror to the groves of pleasure is not good; for the images of beauty lefs powerfully affect the mind than those which they have fucceeded. least merit of the story of fir Bertrand that it breaks off exactly where the intereft would have flagged, where expectation must have been difappointed. It is not the In the ftory of Courtenay the incident of jealoufy is trite. Mrs. Cowley has a ballad upon the fame circumftance. The fragment entitled Montmorency concludes in time. A paffage from this tale will fhow Dr. Drake's defcriptive powers. They were led, by a long and intricate paffage, mid an immenfe affemblage of rocks, which, rifing between feventy and eighty feet perpendicular, bounded on all fides a circular plain, into which no opening was apparent but that through which they came. The moon fhone bright, and they beheld, in the middle of this plain, a hideous chaẩm: it feemed near a hundred feet in diameter, and on its brink grew feveral trees, whose branches, almost meeting in the centre, dropped on its infernal mouth a gloom of settled horror. "Prepare to die," faid one of the banditti, "for into that chasm fhall ye be thrown; it is of unfathomable depth, and that ye may not be ignorant of the place ye are so foon to vifit, we fhall gratify your curiosity with a view of it." So faying, two of them feized the wretched Montmorency, and dragging him to the margin of the abyfs, tied him to the trunk of a tree, and having treated his affociates in the fame manner, "look," cried a banditto with a fiendlike fmile, "look and anticipate the pleafures of your journey." Difmay and pale affright fhook the cold limbs of Montmorency, and as he leant over the illimitable void, the dew fat in big drops upon his forehead. The moon's rays, ftreaming in between the branches, shed a dim light, fufficient to disclose a confiderable part of the vast profundity, whofe depth lay hid, for a fubterranean river, bursting with tremendous noife into its womb, occafioned fuch a mift, from the rifing spray, as entirely to conceal the dreary gulf beneath. Shuddering on the edge of this accurfed pit ftood the miferable warrior; his eyes were starting from their fockets, and, as he looked into the dark abyss, his fenfes, blafted by the view, feemed ready to forfake him. Meantime the banditti, having unbound one of the attendants, prepared to throw him in; he resisted with aftonishing strength, fhrieking aloud for help, and, juft as he had reached the flippery margin, every fibre of his body racked with agonifing terror, he flung himself with fury backwards on the ground; fierce and wild convulfions feized his frame, which being foon followed by a state of exhauftion, he was in this condition, unable any longer to refift, hurled into the dreadful chaẩm; his armour striking upon the rock, there burft a sudden effulgence, and CRIT. REV. VOL. XXVI. May, 1799. C the repetition of the stroke was heard for many minutes as he de fcended down its rugged side. 'No words can defcribe the horrible emotions, which, on the fight of this shocking spectacle, tortured the devoted wretches. The foul of Montmorency fank within him, and, as they unbound his laft fellow-fufferer, his eyes fhot forth a gleam of vengeful light, and he ground his teeth in filent and unutterable anguifh. The inhu man monfters now laid hold of the unhappy man; he gave no oppofition, and, though defpair fat upon his features, not a fhriek, not a groan escaped him, but no fooner had he reached the brink, tham making a fudden effort, he liberated an arm, and grafping one of the villains round the waift, fprang headlong with him into the interminable gulf. All was filent-but at length a dreadful plunge was heard, and the fullen deep howled fearfully over its prey. The three remaining banditti ftood aghaft; they durft not unbind Montmorency, but refolved, as the tree to which he was tied grew near the mouth of the pit, to cut it down, and, by that mean, he would fall, along with it, into the chafm. Montmorency, who, after the, example of his attendant, had conceived the hope of avenging him-' felf, now faw all poffibility of effecting that defign, taken away, and as the axe entered the trunk, his anguifh became fo exceffive that he fainted. The villains, obferving this, determined, from a malicious prudence, to forbear, as at prefent he was incapable of feeling the terrors of his fituation. They therefore withdrew, and left him to recover at his leifure.' P. 256. In the whole volume we find little originality, but much amusement. The critical part is the most valuable, and the poetical part is the worft. Our readers, however, will not, we think, perufe without pleasure the following ftanzas. • I go, farewell my beauteous maid! 'Though dear the little native vale Yet will they hear the deep-drawn figh, Oh, had ye known the gentle maid, |