and romantic enthufiafm of the times he defcribes. We do not think thefe Odes inferior to Mr. Gray's. At the fame time they have more perfpicuity. Some pretty original Sonnets follow, but we must-feal no more.

L.

ART. IV. An Effay on the Application of Natural Hiftory to Poetry. By J. Aikin. 12mo. 2s. 6d. fewed. Warrington, printed for Johnfon in London.' 1777.

HE natural alliance between the Sciences and the Arts,

Tthough extremely obvious, has not been fufficiently at tended to by artifts. Relying too much upon the native powers, of which they are, or imagine themselves to be, poffeffed, they have feldom taken due care to acquire that knowledge which is requifite to provide materials for the difplay of genius and to regulate its exertions. Hence it fo frequently happens that great abilities are injudiciously employed upon improper fubjects, and that in productions which bear the evident traces of a mafterly hand, we meet with incongruities and deviations from truth and nature, which are no inconfiderable diminution of their merit.

In none of the fine Arts is the utility of extenfive and various knowledge more apparent than in poetry. It being the province of the poet to collect and combine images from every quarter, it must be of infinite advantage to him to be capable of furveying the feveral fields of nature with an accurate and fcientific eye. It is by this means alone that poetical compofition can be fufficiently diverfified to give it the charm of novelty and it is perhaps to be imputed to the neglect of this application of science, more than to any real deficiency of poetical genius in the present age, that in modern poetry we fee fo much reason to complain of a perpetual repetition of the fame images clad almoft in the fame language.

This general idea is illuftrated at large in the prefent effay, fo far as refpects that extenfive branch of fcience, Natural Hiftory. The ingenious Writer, with that happy union of solid judgment and elegant tafte which characterises his works, has fhewn, by a number of well chofen examples, that the want of a minute attention to the objects of nature, has occafioned a fameness of thought and expreffion in poetical descriptions, which has all the appearance of fervile imitation, and has produced confufed, obfcure, incongruous and falfe delineations of nature. This latter obfervation our Author thus illuftrates :

The genius of the eastern poets, bold, ardent, and precipitate, was peculiarly averfe to precifion and accuracy. Hurried away by the warm emotions arifing from an idea forcibly impreffed upon their minds, they often feem entirely to lofe

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fight of the train of thought which the propofed fubject would feem naturally to fuggeft. Hence their defcriptions, however animated and ftriking in certain points, are feldom full and diftinct enough to form accurate reprefentations. I will venture to cite those highly celebrated zoological paintings in the book of Job in confirmation of this remark. In all of these it is found, that fome one property of the animal, which it indeed poffeffes in an eminent degree, but not exclufively, gives the leading tone to the description, and occupies the whole attention of the poet, to the neglect of every minuter, though perhaps more difcriminating circumftance. Thus, the fole quality of the horfe which is dwelt upon, is his courage in war. This, indeed, is pictured with great force and fublimity; but by images, many of which are equally applicable to any other warlike creature. Even the noble expreffion of " his neck being cloathed with thunder," is not fo finely defcriptive, because it is less appropriated, than the "luxuriat toris animofum pectus" of Virgil; and, for the fame reason, I can fcarcely agree with Mr. Warton in preferring the paffage, "He fwalloweth the ground with fiercenefs and rage, neither believeth he that it is the found of the trumpet," to the lines

Stare loco nefcit; micat auribus, & mit artus ;

Collectumque premens volvit fub naribus ignem.

The indiftin&tnefs of most of the other defcriptions in this book may be inferred from the very different opinions entertained by critics concerning the animals which the writer intended. Thus, the behemoth is by fome supposed to be the elephant, by others the hippopotamus. The reem, abfurdly in our verfion rendered the unicorn, is variously interpreted the rhinoceros, urus, oryx, and bison. What is more extraordinary, the leviathan, to which a whole chapter is appropriated, has, with almoft equal plaufibility, been maintained to be the whale and the crocodile-a fifh, and an amphibious quadruped. It may, indeed, be alleged, that the defign of the poet in this place, which was to inculcate fublime ideas of the Divine power and majefty from confiderations of the grandeur of his works, and fentiments of humiliation from the comparison of human ftrength and courage to thofe of other creatures, did not require, or even admit of minuteness in zoological description. Still, however, fuch want of precifion in the great outlines of his figures, must be imputed to the prevalence of a characteristie manner, rather than to the decision of the judgment.

This fault, if we may venture to call it fo, to which the Oriental writers, from the peculiar caft of their genius, and an exuberance of that fire which conftitutes the very effence of poetry, were liable, is not, however, that against which it is

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necessary to caution a modern poet. Want of knowledge, attention, or difcernment,ve occafioned thofe failures which the following inftances are ant to exemplify.

Lucan, a poet much more converfant with the schools of rhetoricians than with the works of nature, has contrived to fhew great ignorance in a clofe and fervile copy from Virgil. That writer defcribes with admirable truth and nature those prefages of an impending ftorm which appear in the actions of certain animals. Among the rest he mentions that of the heron's leaving its accustomed haunts in the marshes, and foaring to a great height in the air. This circumstance is thus varied in the representation by Lucan:

aufa volare

Ardea fublimis, pennæ confifa natanti, "The heron dares to fly on high, trufting to its fwimming feather."

He feems to have concluded that the heron, as a fowl converfant with water, must be a swimmer; whereas every one in the leaft acquainted with the hiftory of this bird knows that it takes its prey only by wading, for which its long legs are admirably adapted. See of his commentators, indeed, have attempted to free him from the imputation of ignorance, by suppofing that the epithet "fwimming feather" was intended to denote that easy motion of a bird through the air which has often been resembled to failing or fwimming. But from the whole turn of the paffage, it appears evident to me, that Lucan meant to improve upon his original by one of those antithetical points which, on all occafions, he fo much delights to introduce the images of flying and fwimming are therefore set in oppofition to each other; and unless the latter be employed in its fimple fignification, the words " daring" and "trufting" are not at all applicable. Were even the other explanation admitted, the fmooth fwimming motion would very ill apply to a bird which is remarkable for its heavy and laborious flight.

His variation of another circumftance, in the fame paffage, is equally erroneous. To the crow, which Virgil defcribes as ftalking folitary over the dry fands, he also attributes the action which that poet rightly appropriates to water fowl, of dashing the water over its body before ftormy weather.

caput fpargens undis, velut occupet imbrem,

Inftabili greffu metitur litora cornix.

Mr. Warton's tranflation of Virgil, though in general extremely chaste and correct, affords one inftance of similar error in deviating from the original :

Behold for thee the neighb'ring naiad crops
The violet pale, and poppy's fragrant tops.
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Ecl. II.

The

The epithet fragrant is the tranflator's addition; and an improper one; fince that plant has only a faint disagreeable

odour.

A mistake, different in kind, fince it relates to time rather than to quality, yet refembling in fubject, appears in Pope's firft paftoral. The rofe is reprefented as blowing along with the crocus and violet; though, in reality, fome months intervene betwixt their flowering:

Here the bright crocus and blue vi'let glow,

Here western winds on breathing roses blow.

Manilius, in a fhort defcription of Africa, has improperly introduced the peaceful and innoxious elephant into an enume ration of the fierce and venomous animals which infest that torrid region:

Huic varias peftes, diverfaque membra ferarum,
Conceffit bellis natura infefta futuris ;

Horrendos angues, habitataque membra veneno,
Et mortis partus, viventia crimina terræ ;

Et vafos elephantes habet, fævofque leones,

In panas fatunda fuas, parit horrida tellus. Aftron. lib. 4. • Mr. Creech, in his tranflation of this paffage, has aggravated this impropriety almost to ridicule, by coupling the lion and elephant in one action, entirely unfuitable to the latter. Here nature, angry with mankind, prepares

Strange monsters, inftruments of future wars;
Here fnakes, thofe cells of poifon, take their birth,
Thofe living crimes and grievance of the earth;
Fruitful in its own plagues, the defert fhore
Hears elephants and frightful lions roar.

Shakespeare, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, gives the following beautiful lines to the banished Valentine: Here I can fit alone, unfeen of any,

And to the nightingale's complaining notes

Tune my diftreffes, and record my woes.

The plaintive character of the nightingale renders its introduction pleafing and proper; but Congreve, in a paffage apparently imitated from this, has fpoiled the image by tranf ferring it to the lark, whose character is always cheerful and fprightly:

The morning lark to mine accords his note,

And tunes to my diftrefs his warbling throat.

It has been already obferved that the leviathan of Job is variously understood by critics for the whale and the crocodile. Both thefe animals are remarkable for the fmallness of their eyes in proportion to the bulk of their bodies. Those of the crocodile are indeed faid to be extremely piercing out of the water in which fenfe, therefore, the poet's expreffion that "its

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eyes are like the eye-lids of the morning," can only be applicable. Dr. Young, however, in his paraphrafe on this part of Job, defcribing the crocodile as the animal intended in the original, has given the image an erroneous reference to the magnitude, rather than the brightness of its eye:

Large is his front; and when his burnish'd eyes

Lift their broad lids, the morning feems to rife."

Mr. Aikin next proceeds to take notice of thofe falfe reprefentations of nature, which are grounded on ancient error or fable, and judiciously observes that in the defcription of natural objects, every fabulous image fhould be avoided.

Having shown that the accurate and fcientific knowledge of nature would obviate many of the defects usually discoverable. in poetical compofitions, the Author goes on to exhibit the beauties which the poet may derive from natural, and chiefly from animated objects. In this part of the work he has judiciously selected paffages from the poets, particularly Virgil, Milton, and Thomfon, to illuftrate the application of images drawn from natural history to the purposes of fimple defcription; after which he quotes, feveral fimilies from Homer as inftances of the ufe of natural images in the figures of comparison. Thefe quotations, though numerous, appear neceffary to eftablifh the leading fentiment of the Effay; and they are accompanied with remarks, which at once discover a folid judgment and a correct taste.

In order to fhew that the fources which natural history affords for poetical defcription, are yet open and unexhaufted, the Writer enumerates many natural objects and incidents, which, though highly picturefque, have not hitherto been taken notice. of by the poets. Several of thefe are felected from Pliny's Natural History, and from the relations of modern travellers. But the chief materials for this part of the defign are drawn from Mr. Pennant's British Zoology, to which Mr. Aikin acknowledges himself indebted for the original idea of his Effay.

Were a fecond Thomson, fays our Author, to arife among us, he might derive feveral pleafing additions to the rural fcenery and poetical calendar of this country from the work already fo often referred to, Mr. Pennant's British Zoology. Some of the circumstances which I fhall felect from it, are fo exactly fuited to the manner of that admirable poet, that we may be affured he would have made use of them, had they occurred to his mind.

Among the figns which announce the very earlieft approach of fpring, he would have dwelt with delight upon the interefting and picturesque figure of the miffel thrufh, the largest of our longfters; concerning which Mr. Pennant acquaints us,

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that