Both Homer and Virgil are remarkable for the talent of poetical description. In Virgil's second Æneid, where he describes the burning and sacking of Troy, the particulars are so well selected and represented, that the reader finds himself in the midst of that scene of horror. The death of Priam, especially, may be singled out as a master-piece of description. All the circumstances of the aged monarch arraying himself in armour, when he finds the enemy making themselves masters of the city; his meeting with his family, who are taking shelter at an altar in the court of the palace, and their placing him in the midst of them; his indignation when he beholds Pyrrhus slaughtering one of his sons; the feeble dart which he throws; with Pyrrhus's brutal behaviour, and his manner of putting the old man to death, are painted in the most affecting manner, and with a masterly hand. All Homer's battles, and Milton's account, both of Paradise and of the infernal regions, furnish many beautiful instances of poetical description. Ossian, too, paints in strong and lively colours, though he employs few circumstances; and his chief excellency lies in painting to the heart. One of his fullest descriptions is the following, of the ruins of Balclutha : " I have seen the walls of Balclutha, but they were desolate. had resounded within the halls; and the voice of the people is now heard no more. The stream of Clutha was removed from its place, by the fall of the walls; the thistle shook there its lonely head; the moss whistled to the wind. The fox looked out at the window; the rank grass waved round his head. Desolate is the dwelling of Moina. Silence is the house of her fathers." Shakespeare cannot be omitted on this occasion, as singularly eminent for painting with the pencil of nature. Though it be in manners and characters that his chief excellency lies, yet his scenery also is often exquisite, and happily described by a single stroke; as in that fine line of the "Merchant of Venice," which conveys to the fancy as natural and beautiful an image as can possibly be exhibited in so few words: How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! And here his first libation pours, Nor gold forth flaming from the mine; And cats away with silent waves.-FRANCIS. The fire 66 Much of the beauty of descriptive poetry depends upon a right choice of epithets. Many poets, it must be confessed, are too careless in this particular. Epithets are frequently brought in merely to complete the verse, or make the rhyme answer, and hence they are so unmeaning and redundant; expletive words only, which, in place of adding any thing to the description, clog and enervate it. Virgil's Liquidi fontes," and Horace's Prata canis albicant pruinis," must, I am afraid, be assigned to this class: for, to denote by an epithet that water is liquid, or that snow is white, is no better than mere tautology. Every epithet should either add a new idea to the word which it qualifies, or at least serve to raise and heighten its known signification. So in Milton Who shall tempt with wandering feet The dark, unbottoin'd, infinite abyss, B. ii. The epithets employed here plainly add strength to the description, and assist the fancy in conceiving it ;-the wandering feet the unbottomed abyss the palpable obsure the uncouth way—the indefatigable wing-serve to render the images more complete and distinct. But there are many general epithets, which, though they appear to raise the signification of the word to which they are joined, yet leave it so undetermined, and are now become so trite and beaten in poetical language, as to be perfectly insipid. Of this kind are "barbarous discord-hateful envy - mighty chiefs bloody wargloomy shades-direful scenes," and a thousand more of the same kind which we meet with occasionally in good poets; but with which poets of inferior genius abound every where, as the great props of their affected sublimity. They give a sort of swell to the language, and raise it above the tone of prose; but they serve not in the least to illustrate the object described; on the contrary, they load the style with a languid verbosity. Sometimes it is in the power of a poet of genius, by one well chosen epithet, to accomplish a description, and by means of a single word, to paint a whole scene to the fancy. We may remark this effect of an epithet in the following fine lines of Milton's Lycidas: Where were ye, nymphs, when the remorseless deep For neither were ye playing on the steep, Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. Among these wild scenes, "Deva's wizard stream," is admirably imaged; by this one word, presenting to the fancy all the romantic ideas, of a river flowing through a desolate country, with banks haunted by wizards and enchanters. Akin to this is an epithet which Horace gives to the river Hydaspes. A good man, says he, stands in need of no arms, Sive per Syrtes iter æstuosas, Lambit Hydaspes.-I. od. 22. 5. This epithet," fabulosus," one of the commentators on Horace has changed into sabulosus" or 'sandy;' substituting, by a strange want of taste, the common and trivial epithet of the sandy river,' in place of that beautiful picture which the poet gives us, by calling Hydaspes the romantic river,' or the scene of adventures and poetic tales. Virgil has employed an epithet with great beauty and propriety, when accounting for Dædalus not having engraved the fortune of his son Icarus: Bis conatus erat casus effingere in auro, These instances, and observations, may give some just idea of true poetical description. We have reason always to distrust an author's descriptive talents, when we find him labo rious and turgid, amassing common-place epithets and general expressions, to work up a high conception of some object, of which, after all, we can form but an indistinct idea. The best describers are simple and concise. They set before us such "Whetner through Lybia's burning sands "Here hapless Icarus had found his part, Had not the father's grief restrain'd his art; He twice essay'd to cast his son in gold, Twice from his hand he dropp'd the forming mould."-DRYDEN. In this translation the thought is justly given; but the beauty of the expres sion. “ patriæ manus,” which in the original conveys the thought with so much tenderness, is lost. features of an object, as, on the first view, strike and warm the fancy they give us ideas which a statuary or a painter could lay hold of, and work after them; which is one of the strongest and most decisive trials of real merit of description. LECTURE XLI. THE POETRY OF THE HEBREWS. AMONG the various kinds of poetry, which we are at present employed in examining, the ancient Hebrew poetry, or that of the Scriptures, justly deserves a place. Viewing these sacred books in no higher light, than as they present to us the most ancient monuments of poetry extant, at this day, in the world, they afford a curious object of criticism. They display the taste of a remote age and country. They exhibit a species of composition, very different from any other with which we are acquainted, and, at the same time, beautiful. Considered as inspired writings, they give rise to discussions of another kind. But it is our business, at present, to consider them not in a theological, but in a critical view: and it must needs give pleasure, if we shall find the beauty and dignity of the composition adequate to the weight and importance of the matter. Dr. Lowth's learned treatise, "De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum," ought to be perused by all who desire to become thoroughly acquainted with this subject. It is a work exceedingly valuable, both for the elegance of its composition, and for the justness of the criticism which it contains. In this Lecture, as I cannot illustrate the subject with more benefit to the reader, than by following the track of that ingenious author, I shall make much use of his observations. I need not spend many words in showing, that among the books of the Old Testament there is such an apparent diversity in style, as sufficiently discovers, which of them are to be considered as poetical, and which as prose compositions. While the historical books, and legislative writings of Moses, are evidently prosaic in the composition, the book of Job, the Psalms of David, the Song of Solomon, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, a great part of the prophetical writings, and several passages scattered occasionally through the historical books, carry the most plain and distinguishing marks of poetical writing. There is not the least reason for doubting, that originally these were written in verse, or some kind of measured numbers; though, as the ancient pronunciation of the Hebrew language is now lost, we are not able to ascertain the nature of the Hebrew verse, or at most can ascertain it but imperfectly. Concerning this point there have been great controversies among learned men, which it is unnecessary to our present purpose to discuss. Taking the Old Testament in our own translation, which is extremely literal, we find plain marks of many parts of the original being written in a measured style; and the "disjecti membra poetæ" often show themselves. Let any person read the historical introduction to the book of Job, contained in the first and second chapters, and then go on to Job's speech in the beginning of the third chapter, and he cannot avoid being sensible, that he passes all at once from the region of prose to that of poetry. Not only the poetical sentiments, and the figured style, warn him of the change; but the cadence of the sentence, and the arrangement of the words, are sensibly altered; the change is as great as when he passes from reading Cæsar's Commentaries to read Virgil's Æneid. This is sufficient to show that the sacred Scriptures contain, what must be called poetry in the strictest sense of that word; and I shall afterwards show, that they contain instances of most of the different forms of poetical writing. It may be proper to remark, in passing, that hence arises a most invincible argument in honour of poetry. No person can imagine that to be a frivolous and contemptible art, which has been employed by writers under divine inspiration, and has been chosen as a proper channel for conveying to the world the knowledge of divine truth. From the earliest times, music and poetry were cultivated among the Hebrews. In the days of the judges, mention is made of the schools or colleges of the prophets; where one part of the employment of the persons trained in such schools was, to sing the praises of God, accompanied with various instruments. In the first book of Samuel (chap. x. 7.) we find, on a public occasion, a company of these prophets coming down from the hill where their school was, "prophesying," it is said, "with the psaltery, tabret, and harp before them." But in the days of King David, music and poetry were carried to their greatest height. For the service of the tabernacle, he appointed four thousand Levites, divided into twenty-four courses, and |