'Through thee each creature feels the genial ray, "And the calm'd heavens disclose a brighter day."

The description of the plague at Athens is a very fine digression, I might say episode, if that phrase might be applied to any part of a didactic poem; and there are occasionally some fine ideas cloathed in spirited language; but on the whole Lucretius is a tedious writer, and as the philosophy is good for nothing, few will take the trouble to read him for a few original conceptions and brilliant thoughts poetically expressed. I can say nothing of the Astronomicon of Manilius, having never read it.

The incomparable Georgics present themselves next in order for our consideration, and they may be regarded as a model for didactic composition. The author was indeed happy in his subject; for a dissertation on rural em ployments and affairs affords more scope than any other for beautiful and luxuriant description; but the fine imagination, and luxuriant and vivid style of Virgil, could give enchantment to almost any subject. The plan is sufficiently regular for the conveying of all necessary instruction, while the poem is every where

enlivened by animated description, splendid allusions, or interesting narrations. I need only mention his description of the perpetual spring in Italy, and of the Scythian winter; of the happiness of a country life; of the prodigies that foretold the death of Cæsar; of the murrain among the cattle; his interesting account of the bees; and the beautiful episode, if I may again borrow this expression from epic poetry, of Orpheus and Eurydice. The whole too is enriched with apt allusions to the fables of antiquity, and adorned with a felicity of expression which Virgil only could give. It is unnecessary to add more upon so popular a work, especially as I know you to be not cursorily acquainted with it.

Horace's Art of Poetry is confessedly of so irregular a fabric, that critics are divided on the point whether it is an essay on poetry in general, or only a criticism on the state of dramatic poetry at that time. To me it has always appeared to consist of detached remarks upon poetry in general, written with the usual ease and spirit of the author, and seems in some measure connected with the Epistle to Augustus. Bishop Hurd's remarks upon this poem,

which made some noise when first published, (probably as from the hand of a bishop) are entirely borrowed from a foreign critic. Though inferior to his moral epistles and satires, the Ars Poetica contains many excellent precepts, and very many lively and spirited thoughts. Vida has imitated Horace with more of regularity, but less of spirit. The poem is, however, not destitute of merit. It has been elegantly translated by Mr. Hampson, a gentleman who has evinced considerable powers on other occasions. The translation is introduced by a most ingenious and handsome dedication to a prelate now alive.

Boileau's Art of Poetry is upon a still more regular plan than that of Vida; and, as far as French versification will admit, is a most excellent poem. Boileau's Art of Poetry may be read with great advantage by most young writers, as far as critical rules can come in aid of genius; there is nothing against which we can with propriety take exception, and I do not know that he has omitted any of the critical precepts of antiquity.

Mr. Pope's Essay on Criticism resembles more the Art of Poetry of Horace than either of

those last mentioned. It is full of genius, full of pointed and useful reflexions, but deficient in method. In excuse for this, we must properly recur to the nature of the subject. Criticism, as a science, cannot be reduced to rule, at least without applying it to every department of literature. It was therefore the author's design rather to elicit a few principles and precepts for the moral conduct of critics, than to establish a system. But in whatever light we may regard it as a scholastic treatise, the Essay on Criticism is certainly a poem-a poem abounding in beauties, parts of which are continually quoted as authority by every person of taste. If the early age of the writer (twenty years) is considered, it must be accounted an unexampled production.

Dr. Johnson observes of it-" If he had written nothing else, it would have placed him among the first critics, and the first poets; as it exhibits every excellence that can embellish or dignify a didactic composition." Dr. Johnson adds (in particularizing the beauties of this poem) "That the comparison of a student's progress in the sciences to that of a traveller in the Alps, is perhaps the best that English poetry

can shew." I cordially agree with our great critic in condemning what the poet has urged with respect to the sound being an echo to the sense, as the weakest part of the poem. Rapin's Poem on Gardening I have never

seen.

Du Fresnoy's Poem on Painting I have read in the original, and in Dryden's and Mason's translations; but it has only served to confirm my opinion respecting the great difficulty of making a didactic poem interesting. Mr. Mason's English Garden perhaps will rank most properly as a descriptive poem.

Dr. Akenside, in his Poem on the Pleasures of the Imagination, has attempted to blend philosophy with criticism. It is taken, as you have probably observed, from Mr. Addison's papers in the Spectator on the same subject. It is however but little read at present, and the reason is, that it possesses more the language than the spirit of poetry.

Dr. Armstrong's Essay on Health can scarcely be called a poem. It may be sound doctrine in some instances in a medical point of view; but if it would pass on an examination at the college of physicians, or at Surgeon's-hall, I am confident it never would at the court of