APOLLO and TIBULLUS, join'd In infpiration, gave thy mind! Yes, CHLORA, then, thy playful charms, I have got into a very desultory note; but the truth is, that I do not quite mean it as fuch, but rather as fomewhat prefatory to what will immediately follow this paffage, and be fo different from it. I have indeed already, in my real Preface, intimated and acknowledged the want of strict connection of fubject between the first Canto, for a single Poem, (and now so much better standing as fuch, that I have been not without my wishes to have some at least of my readers to ftop at it, and read no farther) and those that follow. The aim of that firft Poem is to difcriminate more minutely, perhaps, than is commonly thought of, the operations of the mind, and to separate and diftinguish appearance from reality. All this then treats of its outward and vifible operations; but what follows, and now immediately follows, is very different; for it goes not to the practical movement of the wheels or fpings of the machine, but to those wheels and fprings themselves. The first then refers to the practice of man, the second to the means of that practice; and these subjects are diftinct and different, any farther than that they each appertain to man, and certainly appertain (even with much more) to fo inclufive a thing as Reflection, the extenfive title and fubject of the entire performance. Farther, it will be recollected that I fet out with the profeffion of being defultory, various, mifcellaneous-perhaps eccentric, certainly reflective, nay critical, on whatever came in my way that I have fancied mistaken, nay, and whatever the authority in its favour and fupport; and this very note fufficiently fhews the practical indulgence in the profeffion. That it was a part of my plan, not to say the principal part of it, to illustrate, and possibly in no finall degree explain, through this work, my former one of fo many years back, will also be recollected; not a little of which, it is hoped, is now effected through the first Canto: Should prove-thy very Silence given, Her dictates best-from thee alone. F Unequal Canto: as much more will through the others, to those who may think it worth while to look after it; and I could almost wish this performance to be confidered as a kind of continuation of that former one, as breathing the very fame spirit and tendency: nor then poffibly (may I be allowed to say it) might this very note be without its apologizers, if not approvers; and then too might not the writer flatter himself in the hope of the fame for those numerous ones that are to come? It is true, that he has already professed his intention of being thus irregular and unusual, as he has also that even of not fuppreffing obfervations, whether critical or other, that may occur to him in his march, though not poffibly very visibly connected with his fubject. Even like the traveller, who feeing fome ftriking spot or object from his road, fteps out of his way to examine or enjoy it. I could almost wish then, I say, that this were looked upon as really a continuation of that old work, for a while at least, and so as to render more admiffible my prefent project of giving, even exactly as I did in that first work, a Sketch or Portrait, not in verse, but profe, of my fanciful Eve, for whom I in my turn have alfo manifefted a partiality even beyond that for my Divinity. In that quondam work now alluded to, there were, it is well known, many attempts of the kind, and among the female ones, two (those of CAMILLA and FLORA) that, fo far as I can have learned, were not, as attractive reprefentatives of female character, quite difapproved of; I have therefore, I confefs it, felt my little ambition rife in my mind (if that can be the term as applied to fuch trifles-be it then my curiofity, and thence defire of the attempt) to form a third feminine Portrait, that fhall, or may be, not less attractive than they (I may now, 'tis hoped, be allowed to fay) turned out to be; and yet, with traits of character very diftinct from either of the other Unequal to the voice Divine, The more appropriate aim be mine, 470 In humble earthly prose to give, If poffible, thy charms to live;* other two; nor will I quite doubt but that my declared plan of defultoriness may somewhat juffify the introduction; fo even be the idea realized, and fuccefs (certainly for both reader and writer's fake) accompany the attempt. This methinks should, however, though not for the fuperior, for the too numerous common reader be remarked, and added, viz. That the whole being a fiction, (both the colloquy with the Goddefs, and the invitation of CHLORA "to the cell;") it feems necessary to friend HORACE's rule of connectiveness of subject, to make him who is the admirer or lover of CHLORA, even to the degree of preferring her to his Goddess, not a little favoured by her. Plausibility feems to require this, and it is accordingly so done in the invented Portrait or Representation. * See, see, yonder Nymph, fo lightly tripping over the green! What grace, what figure of airynefs, what feeming attractiveness! Is it HORACE'S CHLOE revived?t Rather is it not a Wood-Nymph; or is it one who has efcaped from her Mistress DIANA'S train?—No, no, it is indeed a mortal, as you will foon fee if you accost her; she will not be long ere she prove it to you, and with it how much you prefer her as fuch to a Goddess;—she will foon cure you too (if you are not already) of your fenfible, still more of your learned, ladies :— It is CHLORA:-it is Nature itself, in her most playful and attractive humour:—regardless of all form, all rule, all deviation from Nature, be you a low perfon or high: nay, though of Royalty itself, if you make love to her, as you certainly (though fuch) will do; nay, and at first possibly, from appearances, not very despairingly - + "Vitas hinnuleo me fimilis, CHLOE." HOR. fhe Too happy, if the rude effay Chance to the wishing eye convey Some thought at least of what must be, F 2 Thofe The will treat you-how fhall I fay?—even just as the little French Sultana, of memorable nez-retroufsèz memory,* did her great Solyman in his feraglio; fhe is just as faucy, and juft as delicious, even from that very faucinefs; fhe is a mixture of that character, and of MARIANNE or PAMELA;-as naive and fimple as either of the latter, while as volatile, playful, and unrestrained, as the former; in a paffion with you one moment, sweetness enchanting in the next moment, almost in the same, nay and at the fame time; while you would or do laughingly kiss it all away, and she end, perhaps, with joining in the laugh along with you. Every thing fhe thinks the confequently utters, and to men equally as to her own fex; looking indeed on them, and feeling towards them all, aye, whatever their charms-personal, honorary, pecuniary, &c. &c.-one only excepted, (judge if that a contented one) as if of the same sex: of the fect of ZENO on one part, of EPICURUS on the other; Yes, Ice to them all, fhe is Summer, Summer in all its warmth, its glow, its glory, and its loveliness, to that one. Need it be added what that must reciprocally infpire, where even an Anchorite would catch fire of such sexuality,+ as no one of corre fpondent fex could in nature refift; nay, who seemed formed to realize the fabled re-vivification *MARMONTEL's Trois Sultanes. + I fear that I have an excufe to make my reader here, for the coinage of a word; it is a licence I little approve, and have not, that I know of, practised before: I hope it is not a very unappropriate one. I looked in Johnson to see whether, in the number of his unaccountable words, he had this, but he has not; not that with myself his authority weighs much one way or the other, in that much-admired-while to myself most exceptionable of Compofitions. a Thofe features that could even shine, Through colours faint and weak as mine. MUSE! plume thy heav'nly wing, and spread Thy influence o'er the Poet's head! Oh, no: Truth unpoetic, give Thy dictates in his breast to live, While conscious Pride, the Pride of old, In felf-conviction's feelings bold, Dares-thus involv'd in mental truth— Declare to lift'ning age or youth,† 480 fication of Aurora's Titan from age to youth. Her countenance is not, on examination, made up of features that fymmetry might justify or boast of; no, but it is made up of fuch as, exactly congenial to, and expreffive of, her own compofition, form a totality that is refiftless: her look is vivacity, blended with, and tempered by, Sweetnefs; yet, while it denotes nothing of defire in general, it fhews the capacity of it in particular, and where it should possess it:-In short, with a person as Nymph-like, and as completely formed as Nature could effect, with attractiveness really nameless, and a certain gracefulness quite undefineable; what better can her Painter do, than like the famed one of old, who, defpairing of adequately expreffing in his principal character the paffion he wished to describe, contrived to fling a curtain over that figure, that Imagination might effect what his pencil was incapable of:-Even thus then let the prefent Painter do, and fo conclude his incomplete description. |