red to, the reader must be left to determine with what propriety it can be afferted that "descrip❝tive poetry was by no means the shining ta"lent of POPE." Surely his candour and penetration as a critic had been better difplayed in obferving "that the studious cultivation of defcriptive poetry was far below the "poet's comprehenfion and fublime genius." Our critic is right, nevertheless, in remarking that there are few images introduced which are not applicable to any place whatever, and rather defcriptive of rural beauty in general, than of the peculiar beauties of Windsor Forest. At the fame time it should be remembered, that the forest in its state at that time, afforded but few images which could be peculiarly appropriated to it. No magnificent lakes or cafcades, no elegant ftructures, or other beauties with which royal taste and magnificence has fince embellished it, were then appropriated to it. But what beauties were peculiar to it, our poet has deferibed in the introduction of the poem from yerfe nine to forty*, and with respect to the other *It is obfervable that the critic has cenfured the fimile of the following lines. "Here waving groves a chequer'd fcene difplay, Bohours other images, though they are not peculth to the foreft alone, yet they are fo admirably de cribed, that they may be truly faid to be excela lent in their kind, and to prove that Mr. Port poffeffed the talent of descriptive poetry infizą very eminent degree. Our poet's talents, however, ripening daily under the benign and foftering patronage of his noble and ingenious friends, he left fcarce any fpecies of poetical compofition unattempted, attempted none in which he did not excel and 31 5/179 15 to moiniy ad on lampa ensam His lyric pieces, which he compofed foon after his Windfor Foreft, have been defervedly admired: and his Ode on St. Cecilia's birth-day, in particular, has been efteemed the most artful as well as the moft fublime of his leffer com pofitions. ua xandamci 165" 16m or Tobio ai „zabadì Bohours, fays he, would rank, this comparison among falle thoughts and Italian conceits: the fallacy confifts in giving defign and artifice to the wood, as well as to the coquette and in putting the light of the fun and the warmth of a lover, on a level. duft oftea va : Kalanla mohum to saxon adi ani This is a fault, however, as he acknowledges, very unCommon in the writings of Mr. POPE: And perhaps the fault here imputed to the poet is rather owing to a mistake in the critic. It is not the nymph's difpofition of mind, to which the chequered fcene is here, compared, but to the effets produced by that difpofition, viz. Sun-fhine and gloom: which are natural, in the object of fription, and intelleltual in the objects of comparisons Naringgo na dodi 6 The The first stanza expreffes the various tones and measures in mufic, and is almost a perfect concert of itself. The fecond defcribes their power over the several paffions in general. The third explains their use in infpiring the heroic paffrons in particular. The fourth, fifth and fixth, their power over all nature, in the fable of Orpheus's expedition to hell. The seventh and laft concludes in praise of mufic, and the advantages of the facred above the profane. The beginning of the second stanza in the opinion of our critic is a little flat, and by no means equal to the conclufion of it. But we might, on this occafion, very properly answerhim by a remark of his own in another part, where he fays, "If we confider that variety, "which in all arts is neceffary to keep up at"tention, we may perhaps affirm with truth "that inequality makes a part of excellence: "That fomething ought to be thrown into "shades, in order to make the lights more strik ing." It may be added, that this inequality or flatness, if our critic chooses to call it fo, is in the inftance before us rather a beauty than, a blemish: For as the ftanza opens with defcribing the power of mufic in conferring tranquillity and equanimity, it is rather a proof of our poet's skill in adapting his numbers to the fentiment, and it would have been very injudicious to have risen too high in the opening, more especially as the ideas which follow, afford him fuch an opportunity of fwelling into a beauti ful ful climax. But let the reader judge for himfelf. "By Music, minds an equal temper know, "Nor fwell too high, nor fink too low. "If in the breast tumultuous joys arise, "Mufic her soft, affuafive voice applies; "Or, when the foul is prefs'd with cares, "Exalts her in enliv'ning airs. Warriors she fires with animated founds; "Pours balm into the bleeding lover's wounds: Melancholy lifts her head, 66 66 "Morpheus rouses from his bed, "Sloth unfolds her arms and wakes, Lift'ning Envy drops her fnakes; "Inteftine war no more our Paffions wage, "And giddy Factions hear away their rage.". Nothing can be more artfully managed than this stanza, nor can any thing be more striking and poetical than the beautiful perfonifications here introduced. To talk of the flatnefs in the beginning of this ftanza, is as if a learner in the mathematics fhould cenfure the drynefs of a theorem, because he does not immediately perceive that fertility and abundance, which spring up from it on profound cultivation. Though our poe: be as fublime as Pindar, yet he is infinitely more regular and philofophic: and it was here his purpose to prove that the legitimate use of mufic is to temper the paffions, in fupport of reafon. In the two first lines therefore, this useful propofition positionî isy delivebed; as such always should be, whether in poetry or profe, with great fimpli city. But the proof of it, in the various inftances of its truth; he delivers in all the fublime of poetic thought and expreffion. But our critic's cenfure of the following numbetsjewlich bonclude the fifth ftanza, appears to be better foundervin : abnuel betsmine diz sebnuowe"Thus fong could prevail "O'braleath, and o'er hell, * A conqueft how hard and how glorious! Though in this place a fong of triumph must bellowed to yberwell placed; by ill luck, beverthelessy the medfure has been employed in drinking-songs, which added to the story, which has been as commonly the subject of thofe fongs, throws an air of ridicule on what the poet intended to be serious; and makes these numbers, the critic obferves, of fo burlesque and ridiautous fa skind, that one is concerned to find them in a ferious ode, and in an ode of a writer mihaly killed, in general, in accommodating horfounds to his fentiments. edHe might have extended his cenfure likewife aduthe following lines, where the poet dèfcribes the grief and defpair of the lover, who loft his Eurydit byilooking back.ch Adjoin odont moititog "Now |