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Different in man we see the growth of mind,
Onward moves Genius, Dullness stays behind.
External causes lead to different ways,
When Passion prompts the ready mind obeys.
Some on the wings of wavering Fancy fly
While some in seas of metaphysics pry.
When first we enter life's deceitful scene,
Gaze on the sun and tread the lively green,
All Nature's objects meet our busy eyes
With equal pleasure, with the same surprise.
The same excitements chill our soul with fear,
The same afflictions draw the melting tear;
The same gay prospects kindle warm desire
Bid Hope stand tiptoe with her torch on fire....
When farther on life's journey we pursue,
And wider prospects open to our view;

For different objects then our passions burn,
To different paths our inclinations turn.
....If we the progress of the mind survey,

From infant weakness to her sad decay,

101.

We'll mark the change which years succeeding bring,

The passions which from youth and manhood

....When first our frame the strength of youth

assumes,

And novelty on every object blooms;

110

When knowledge first unrolls her endless page, Rich with the records of preceding age,

The curious mind then roves with quick surprise,
Enjoys one object, to another flies;

Bends on each scene her momentary sight,
Sips like the bee, and wantons in delight.
....The wandering memory thro' the fields of lore
With thoughts and images augments her store:
Then Fancy fluttering in the morning beam, 119
Combines her pictures, gives to Hope her dream:
Then Judgment slumbering, we are led astray
And follow Fiction in her pathless way;
We love to listen to some dreadful tale

Which Mystery darkens with her magic veil.

We love to hear of ruins and of halls

Thro' which some dead-man's voice with shuddering accent calls.

When years revolving riper knowledge bring And prune the wildness of young Fancy's wing, Then Nature rises in true colours dress'd,

We feel her image pictured on the breast. 130

Then cold, disgusted at fair Falshood's charms,
We throw the wanton from our vigorous arms;

Press to our hearts the lovely form of Truth
Cloth'd in the beauty of immortal youth.
Then Judgment, Reason hold their steadfast reign,
Nor feel the tangles of Delusion's chain.
Enchantment then no longer holds its sway
And Fancy's fairy landscape fades away.
Then toils the mind with firm unshaken pace,
And follows Error in her winding chace:
She searches Truth amidst the mighty deep,
She climbs for Knowledge up the rugged steep:
By demonstration she unveils Disguise,

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And shews the haunt where lurking Folly lies.
At length old age steals o'er the bending frame
Destroys our vigour and our thirst for fame;
To mental toil, then weariness succeeds,
Remembrance looks upon our former deeds,
Then no new conquests kindle our desires
But proud Ambition glimmers and expires. 150
Then loves the mind on early days to dwell,
To call past life from Memory's darken'd cell.
Firm in opinions she maintains her course
While Opposition spends in vain its force;

All her attainments cease....she bids no more Invention labour in pursuit of lore;

159

Chill o'er the senses noiseless stupors creep
And sink the passions in a deathful sleep,
Fitful and deep proceeds the vital breath
And man falls shivering in the arms of Death.
Then from the body bursts the ransom'd soul,
Spurns the base earth and coars where systems
roll,

Great God! where angels in thy presence throng
She rests her flight and joins the ceaseless song.
Taste is the willing umpire of the soul,
And arm'd with sanctions acts without controul ;

* Definitions often rather confuse than enlighten the mind. The arbitrary terms of metaphysical and logical writers, require a train of reasoning before we can observe the basis on which they are founded. It may, however, tend to place taste in a clearer view than we can by the measures of poetry, if we select from some approved authors, the most satisfactory definitions of taste.

"Ima-.

gination united with some other mental powers, and operating as a percipient faculty, in conveying suitable impressions of what is elegant, sublime or beautiful, in art or nature, is called Taste."

This definition of Beattie has left unmentioned those ental powers united and operating with imagination; it s also confined taste to the discernment of what is ele

It takes from Genius a reflected ray,

As Cynthia brightens from the source of day. The seeds of taste in numerous breasts are sown,

But few can mighty Genius call their own.

170

gant or beautiful, without noticing its rejection of what is faulty and improper....it is therefore in this respect incomplete....." "Taste (according to the classical writer of Fitzosborne's letters) is nothing more than an universal sense of beauty rendered more exquisite by genius and more correct by cultivation." This definition, though not equal to the former, contains one beautiful remark; which is, that taste is rendered more exquisite by genius and more correct by cultivation. A much more complete definition of taste than either of these, is given by Rollin. "Taste (says he) with reference to the reading of authors and composition, is a clear and distinct discerning of all the beauty, truth and justness of the thoughts and expressions, which compose a discourse. It distinguishes what is conformable to eloquence and propriety in every character, and whilst, with a delicate and exquisite sagacity, it notes the graces, turns, manners, and expressions most likely to please, it perceives also all the defects which produce the contrary effect, and distinguishes precisely wherein those defects consist, and how far they are removed from the strict rules of art and the real beauties of nature. This happy faculty which it is more easy to conceive than define, is less the effect of genius than judgment, and a kind of natural reason wrought to perfection by study. It serves in composition to guide and direct the understand