urged against a whole class of writers; against Milton, perhaps Spenser, and in later times against Akenside and Collins, and Mason and T. Warton, and many other poets, who have selected the beautiful expressions and forcible language of older times, and have united them by a judicious disposition into an ornamented style of their own. In poetry as well as prose, there are various styles, each of its own peculiar merit, fitted to the genius of him who invented, adopted, or improved it; and it also must be remarked, that one species of poetry demands a style wholly different from another; that Gray's lyrical style, if ornamented, is not to be censured, because Goldsmith's descriptive style is plain; that the Epic, the Dramatic Poem, the Elegy, the Epistle, and the Ode, are formed in models widely differing from each other: "On ne songe pas, (says M. de la Motte, in the very sensible preface to his Fables,) qu'il y a plusieurs graces, qui, sans se ressembler, peuvent se remplacer les unes les autres, et faire un plaisir, égal, quoiqu'il ne soit pas le même." This objection certainly has a tendency to establish a rule, that poetry possesses but one generic style or manner adapted to it; and that all other styles are more or less erroneous, in proportion as they depart from this imaginary standard of excellence.*

In Gray, as it is evident that the most exquisite

See Todd's Ed. of Milton, vol. v. p. 415, ed. 1st.

attention has been paid to the harmony of his numbers and the cadence of his verse, so his language also is generally elevated above that style of which the greater part of poetry consists: or, in other words, it is raised to that point, which is the level of the finer and more elaborate parts of most poems. Upon this ground, I think, the objection is founded. To which I should observe, that such a species of composition, in my opinion at least, is in no wise misplaced, but, on the other hand, is productive of the greatest beauty in that species of poetry, to which the chief part of Gray's productions is confined; namely, the Ode. In compositions where action is carried on, there is something to assist the language, to supply its defects, and conceal its weakness, by an interest of its own. But lyrical poetry is conversant more generally with sentiment and description than action it does not appeal to the passions, but is adorned with the display of the imagination. In another point of view also, in poems of greater length, the variation of the subject demands a difference of style; in epic and dramatic compositions, some parts must be subservient; in poems of great length, as it is said in great compositions in painting, considerable part must be common and ordinary.* Many parts may be of little conse

This is agreeable to the opinion of D'Alembert, in his Réflexions sur la Poësie. En effet, un long ouvrage

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quence; and there may be qualities in the various branches of those compositions, hostile to embellishment. Pope, in a letter to Mr. Walsh, says,

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to bestow heightening on every part, is monstrous. Some parts ought to be lower than the rest and nothing looks more ridiculous than a work, where the thoughts, however different in their own nature, seem all on a level." Aristotle recommends the poet to reserve for those parts of the poem that display no action (ἐν τοῖς ἀργοῖς μépɛo), the most elaborate and adorned language, knowing that in these parts, the beauty of the language must supply that interest that cannot be borrowed from the action.-To conclude this branch of the subject; as I observed, that the style or diction of Gray's poems derived an excellence from its being formed upon wide observation, and from various sources; so I should think the diction of his contemporary Warton liable to censure; insomuch, as he has selected his words, his descriptions, his epithets, and the general character of

doit ressembler, proportion gardée, à une longue conversation, qui, pour être agréable sans être fatigante, ne doit être vive et animée, que par intervalles. Ou dans un sujet noble, les vers cessent d'être agréables, dès qu'ils sont négligés ; et d'un autre côté le plaisir s'émousse par la continuité même." See also some sensible reflections on this subject in the xviiith Lecture, of Dr. Priestley's Lectures on Oratory and Criticism. And Beattie's Essay on Poetry, p. 560, 4to, and Dr. Young on Lyric Poetry, vol. vi. p.

his style, from the pages of a few authors, from Spenser, Milton, and the less eminent poets, Drayton and Browne, with some others:

a practice, which has, in my opinion at least, detracted very materially from the flow and ease of his writing, which has given to many of his poems an appearance of intended imitation, of being formed upon some particular and confined system; instead of the genius of the poet appearing to command, arrange, and adorn all the assistance which he thought it necessary to procure. That poetry is most excellent, where the character of the poet appears with strong and visible features, through the design of the poem. The poetry of Warton does not appear to me to give us any insight into the character of the man. It is the artist alone, that is visible.* I should almost think it necessary to make some apology for the observations which I have afforded on the poetry of T. Warton, were I not confident that they proceed from the most attentive, and, as far as I am aware, the most impartial consideration of his works: nor is it to be

* I must remark, in this place, that the observations which I have presumed to make on the poetry of Warton, do not apply to all his poetry. Some of his Sonnets and Odes are written with real feeling, and true poetic character. At the same time I should not be inclined to rank 'The Suicide' among the happier productions of his fancy.

forgotten that his great merits in other branches of the poetic art, may amply compensate for his deficiency in this. I certainly think that the system upon which he formed his phraseology was wrong: that it is not the language of nature; or of art that constantly keeps nature in view that it is rather the production of a confined and artificial taste; and that it is not language that can be relished and enjoyed by the generality of readers; I mean of those who know and feel what true poetry is. If not, to what other criterion is it to be referred? Addison tells us, "that poetry, like all the other fine arts, is to deduce its laws from the general sense and taste of mankind." The poet indeed, and those educated in the same habits of thought, may gaze with delight on the forms of his own partial creation; but they cannot be expected to produce any effect upon the taste or feeling of society: "utendum (says the Roman critic) plane nummo cui publica forma est.”*

The compositions of all good writers have, of necessity, that difference which arises from the peculiar habits of association formed by them: and in the degree in which those habits unite with or differ from those of the world in general, arises the popularity or neglect of the poet. He who has formed his associations from a narrow system, and from a confined and partial acquaintance with general nature, must expect that his admirers will * See Quinctiliani Instit. Lib. i. c. 6.