A didactic poet ought also to connect his episodes with his subject. In this, Virgil is eminent. Among modern didactic poets, Akenside and Armstrong are distinguished. The former is rich and poetical; but the latter maintains greater equality, and more chaste and correct elegance.

Of didactic poetry, satires and epistles run into the most familiar style. Satire seems to have been at first a relic of ancient comedy, the grossness of which was corrected by Ennius and Lucilius. At length Horace brought it into its present form. Reformation of manners is its professed end; and vice and vicious characters are the objects of its censure. There are three different modes, in which it has been conducted by the three great ancient satirists, Horace, Juvenal, and Persius.

The satires of Horace have not much elevation. They exhibit a measured prose. Ease and grace characterize his manner; and he glances rather at the follies and weaknesses of mankind than at their vices. He smiles while he reproves. He moralizes like a sound philosopher, but with the politeness of a courtier. Juvenal is more declamatory and serious; and has greater strength and fire. Persius has distinguished himself by a noble and sublime morality.

Poetical epistles, when employed on moral or critical subjects, seldom rise into a higher strain of poetry than satires. But, in the epistolary form, many other subjects may be treated; as love, poetry, or elegiac. The ethical epistles of Pope are a model; and in them he shows the strength of his genius. Here he had a full opportunity for displaying his judgment and wit, his concise and happy expression, together with the harmony of his numbers. His imitations of Horace are so happy, that it is difficult to say, whether the original or the copy ought to be most admired.

Among moral and didactic writers, Dr. Young, ought not to be passed over in silence. Genius appears in all his works; but his Universal Passion may be considered as possessing the full merit of that an

imaled conciseness particularly requisite in satirical and didactic compositions. At the same time it is to be observed, that his wit is often too sparkling, and his sentences too pointed. In his Night Thoughts there is great energy of expression, several pathetic passages, many happy images, and many pious reflections. But the sentiments are frequently overstrained and turgid, and the style harsh and obscure.

DESCRIPTIVE POETRY.

In descriptive poetry the highest exertions of genius may be displayed. In general, indeed, description is introduced as an embellishment, not as the subject of a regular work. It is the test of a poet's imagination, and always distinguishes an original from a second rate genius. A writer of an inferior class sees nothing new or peculiar in the object he would paint; his conceptions are loose and vague; and his expressions feeble and general. A true poet places an object before our eyes. He gives it the coloring of life; a painter might copy from him.

The great art of picturesque description lies in the selection of circumstances. These ought never to be vulgar or common. They should mark strongly the object. No general description is good; all distinct ideas are formed upon particulars. There should also be uniformity in the circumstances selected. In describing a great object, every circumstance brought forward should tend to aggrandize; and in describing a gay object, all the circumstances should tend to beautify it. Lastly, the circumstances in description should be expressed with conciseness and simplicity.

The largest and fullest descriptive performance in perhaps any language, is Thomson's Seasons; a work which possesses very uncommon merit. The style is splendid and strong, but sometimes harsh and indis

tinct. He is an animated and beautiful describer ; for he had a feeling heart and a warm imagination. He studied nature with care; was enamoured of ber beauties and had the happy talent of painting them like a master. To show the power of a single well chosen. circumstance, in heightening a description, the following passage may be produced from his Summer, where, relating the effects of heat in the torrid zone, he is led to take notice of the pestilence that destroyed the English fleet at Carthagena, under Admiral Vernon.

-You, gallant Vernon, saw

The miserable scene; you, pitying, saw
To infant weakness sunk the warrior's arm;
Saw the deep racking pang; the ghastly form;
The lip pale quivering, and the beamless eye
No more with ardor bright; you heard the groans
Of agonizing ships from shore to shore;

Heard nightly plung'd amid the sullen waves
The frequent corse.—————

All the circumstances here selected tend to heighten the dismal scene; but the last image is the most striking in the picture.

Of descriptive narration there are beautiful examples in Parnell's Tale of the Hermit. The setting forth of the hermit to visit the world, his meeting a companion, and the houses in which they are entertained, of the vain man, the covetous man, and the good man, are pieces of highly finished painting. But the richest and the most remarkable of all the descriptive poems in the English language, are the Allegro and the Penseroso of Milton. They are the storehouse whence many succeeding poets have enriched their descriptions, and are inimitably fine poems. Take, for instance, the following lines from the Penseroso :

Over some wide water'd shore,
Swinging slow with solemn roar.
Or, if the air will not permit,
Some still removed place will fit,
Where glowing embers through the room
Teach light to counterfeit a gloom;
Far from all resort of mirth,
Save the cricket on the hearth,
Or the bell-man's drowsy charm,
To bless the doors from nightly harm.
Or let my lamp at midnight hour
Be seen in some high, lonely tower,
Exploring Plato, to unfold

What worlds, or what vast regions, hold
Th' immortal mind, that hath forsook
Her mansion in this fleshy nook;

And of these demons, that are found

In fire, air, flood, or under ground.

Here are no general expressions; all is picturesque expressive, and concise. One strong point of view is exhibited to the reader; and the impression made is lively and interesting.

Both Homer and Virgil excel in poetical description. In the second Eneid, the sacking of Troy is so particularly described, that the reader finds himself in the midst of the scene. The death of Priam is a masterpiece of description. Homer's battles are all wonderful. Ossian, too, paints in strong colours, and is remarkable for touching the heart. He thus portrays the ruins of Balclutha : "I have seen the walls of Balclutha ; but they were desolate. The fire 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 of the window; the rank grass waved round his head, Desolate is the dwelling of Moina; silence is in the house of her fathers."

Much of the beauty of descriptive poetry depends upon a proper choice of epithets. Many poets are often careless in this particular; hence the multitude of unmeaning and redundant epithets. Hence the Liquidi fontes" of Virgil, and the "Prata canis

albicant pruinis" of Horace.

To observe that wa

ter is liquid, and that snow is white, is little better than mere tautology. Every epithet should add a new idea to the word which it qualifies. So in Milton :

Who shall tempt with wandering feet
The dark, unbottom'd infinite abyss;
And, through the palpable obscure, find out
His uncouth way? Or spread his airy flight,
Upborne with indefatigable wings,
Over the vast abrupt?

The description here is strengthened by the epithets. The wandering feet, the unbottomed abyss, the palpable obscure, the uncouth way, the indefatigable wing, are all happy expressions.

THE POETRY OF THE HEBREWS.

In treating of the various kinds of poetry, that of the Scriptures justly deserves a place. The sacred books present us the most ancient monuments of poetry now extant, and furnish a curious subject of criticism. They display the taste of a remote age and country. They exhibit a singular but beautiful species of composition; and it must give great pleasure, if we find the beauty and dignity of the style adequate to the weight and importance of the matter. Dr. Lowth's learned treatise on the poetry of the Hebrews ought to be perused by all.

It is an exceedingly valuable work, both for elegance of style and justness of criticism. We cannot do better than to follow the track of this ingenious author.

Among the Hebrews poetry was cultivated from the earliest times. Its general construction is singular and peculiar. It consists in dividing every period into correspondent, for the most part into equal members, which answer to each other, both in sense and sound. In the first member of a period, a sentiment is expressed; and in the second,