“ The Moral Essays depart much farther from poetry so defined, as they exhibit particular casts and characters of man, according to different habits of existing society ; that is, of artificial life.

“ Pope was not less capable of pourtraying* the passions, as we have seen in the Epistle to Abelard, &c. by vividness of expression and colours, than others; but we must estimate what he has done, not what he might have done. Mady, perhaps, may regret with me, that if he disdained

.... in Fancy's fields to wander long,
• But stoop'd to Truth, and moraliz'd the song;'

that he had not at least wandered somewhat longer among scenes that were congenial to the feelings of every heart; and that he should leave them for the thorns and briars of ineffectual satire and bitterness ; quitting for these such scenes as

• The Paraclete's white walls and silver springs;'

like his great predecessor in poetry, Milton, who left the Pastures of Peneus, and the Pines of Ætna,' to write Tetrachordon,' and to mingle in the malignant puritanical turbulence of the times.*

“ When we speak of the poetical character, derived from passions of general Nature, two obvious distinctions must occur, without regard to Aristotle; those which, derived from the passions, may be called pathetic, and those which, derived from the same source, may be called sublime.

“ Of the pathetic, no one (considering the Epistle of Eloisa alone) has touched the chords so tenderly, so pathetically, and so melodiously. As far as this goes, Pope, therefore, in poetical and musical expression, has no competitor.

“ We will now proceed to covsider those passions which are equally the subject of genuine poetry, and on which are founded (I do not say Epic or Tragic excellence, for these Pope declined, but) that species of poetic sublimity, which gives life and animation to the Ode. “ In this respect, I believe, no one who ever thought

I of ALEXANDER's Feast, or the Bard of GRAY, could for a moment imagine Pope pre-eminent. Before these he sinks, as much as any other writer, whose subject was pathetic, sinks before him. His Odes for the Duke of BUCKINGHAM, though elegant, are wholly unworthy to be classed as the compositions of a superior Lyric Poet.

“ In what has been said, I have avoided the introduction of picturesque description; that is, accurate representations from external objects of Nature: but if the premises laid down in the commencement of these reflections be true, no one can stand pre-eminent as a great descriptive poet, unless he has, not only a heart susceptible of the most pathetic or exalted feelings of nature, but, an eye attentive to, and familiar with, every external appearance that she may exhibit, in every change of season, every variation of light and shade.* He who has not an eye to observe these, and

• I beg it to be here observed, and I particularly request Mr. CAMPBELL, if he condescend to read this, to remember, that even

who cannot with a glance distinguish every diversity of every hue in her variety of beauties, must so far be deficient in one of the essential qualities of a poet.

“ Here Pope, from infirmities, and from physical causes, was particularly deficient. When he left his own laurel circus at Twickenham, he was lifted into his chariot or his barge; and with weak eyes, and tottering strength, it is physically impossible he could be a descriptive Bard of the most eminent kind. Where description has been introduced among his poems, as far as his observation could go, he excelled ; more could not be expected. In the descriptions of the cloister, the scenes surrounding the melancholy convent, as far as could be gained by books, or suggested by imagination, he was eminently successful; but even here, perhaps, he only proved that he could not go far: and

• The streams that shine between the hills,

The grots that echo to the tinkling rills,' were possibly transcripts of what he could most easily transcribe,--his own views and scenery.

66

in descriptive poetry, so far from confining my ideas of excellence in this case to mere representations of external nature, I require, even here, before I should call a poet pre-eminent, a heart susceptible of pathetic and exalted feelings. I confess the fault, of he “leaves,” &c.; but in the notes to Pope, so far from thinking it always right to particularize even in description, I have said, one of the great arts of a true poet is to know “ when to be specific, and when general.” Νυκτι εοικως* is SUBLIME ; yet would not be so, if the image were made more specific. The moonlight scene is particular; and would lose almost all its beauty, if it were less in detail. * The first book of the Iliad ; the translation of which by Pope bas been often quoted, “ As when the moon,” &c.

But how different, how minute is his description, when he describes what he is master of: for instance, the game of Ombre, in the Rape of the Lock? This is from artificial life; and with artificial life, from his infirmities, he must have been chiefty conversant. But if he had been gifted with the same powers of observing outward Nature, I have no doubt he would have evinced as much accuracy in describing the appropriate and peculiar beauties, such as nature exhibits in the Forest* where he lived, as he was able to describe, in a manner so novel, and with colours so vivid, a game of cards.+

“ It is for this reason that his Windsor Forest, and his Pastorals, must ever appear so defective to a lover of Nature.

Pope, therefore, wisely left this part of his art, which Thomson, and many other poets since his time, have cultivated with so much more success, and turned to what he calls the Moral' of the Song I

“I need not go regularly over bis works; but I think they may be generally divided under the heads I have mentioned ;Pathetic, Sublime, Descriptive, Moral, and Satirical. eleve

“ In the pathetic, poetically considered, he stands highest; in the sublime, he is deficient; in descriptions from Nature, for reasons given, still more so.

He therefore pursued that path in poetry which was more congenial to his powers, and in which he has shone without a rival.

• Windsor Forest.
+ See Rape of the Lock, description of Ombre.
t'But turn'd to truth, nd moraliz'd the song.'

" We regret that we have little more truly pathetic, from his pen, than the Epistle of Eloisa; the Elegy to the unfortunate Lady; and let me not forget one of the sweetest and most melodious of his pathetic effusions, the Address to Lord OXFORD:

*Such wero the notes thy once-lov'd Poet sung."

“ With the exception of these, and the Prologue to Čato, there are few things in Pope of the order I have mentioned, to which the recollection recurs with particular tenderness and delight.

“ When be left these regions, to unite the most exquisite machinery of fancy with the descriptions of årtificial life, the Rape of the Lock will, first and last, present itself ;-a composition, as Johnson justly observes, the most elegant, the most airy,' of all his works; a composition, to which it will be in vain to compare any thing of the kind.' He stands alone, unrivalled, and possibly never to be rivalled. All Pope's successful labour of correct and musical versification, all his talents of accurate description, though in an inferior province of poetry, are here consummately displayed; and as far as artificial life, that is, manners, not passions, are capable of being rendered poetical, they are here rendered so, by the fancy, the propriety, the elegance, and the poetic beauty of the Sylphic machinery

" This delightful' poem, as I have said, appears to stand conspicuous and beautiful, in that middle state, where poetry begins to leave Nature, and approximates to local manners. The Muse has, indeed, no longer her great characteristic attributes, pathos or sublimity; but

Ć