thought, what is observed? Whatever authority may be pleaded for the incoherence of lyric poetry, what is certain? What increases the disorder of this species of poetry? What do they do? Whereas, of lyric composition, what remark follows? Of what has Pindar been the occasion? Of his genius, his expressions, and his descriptions, what is observed? But finding it a very barren subject to sing the praises of those who had gained the prize in the public games, what did he do? Why is our pleasure in reading him much diminished? What would one imagine? Where have we the same kind of lyric poetry as in Pindar? Of Horace, as a writer of odes, what is observed? From what has he descended? Beyond what does he not often aspire? What is the peculiar character in which he excels; and what remark follows? Of him, what is farther remarked? Among the Latin poets of later ages, as imitators of Horace, who is the most distinguished? What are the characteristics of his odes? What is said of Buchanan? Among the French, whose odes are justly celebrated? What is their character? In our own language, whose odes are the most distinguished; and of them, what is observed?

How is this remark illustrated? Of should be the reigning character of the what other Greek writers of pastorals first two kinds? What should reign in have we remains, and what is said of the latter? From what does one of the them? With what have the modern chief difficulties in composing the ode writers of pastorals, generally, content-arise? Of a professed ode, what is exed themselves? Who, however, at-pected? Full of this idea, what does tempted a bold innovation; and what the poet do? In either case, of what is was it? Why has not this innovation he in great hazard? How is this illusgained followers; and what follows? trated? What is not required; but still, Of all the moderns, who has been the in every composition, what ought there most successful in pastoral composi- to be? Of transitions from thought to tions? What peculiar excellencies do they possess? Of Mr. Pope's and Mr. Philips's pastorals, what is observed? What may be an apology for Mr. Pope's faults? What is their chief merits; and why? What did Philips attempt, and how did he succeed? Of these two writers, what is further remarked? About the same time, what did Mr. Gay publish; and what was their design? What is said of them? Of Mr. Shenstone's pastoral ballad, what is observed? What has not yet been mentioned? Of this improvement, what is remarked? Of this nature, what two Italian pieces have we, and what is said of them? Of the latter, what is observed? What other pastoral drama does our author mention? What are great disadvantages to this beautiful poem? But, though subject to those local disadvantages, yet, of it, what remark follows? What is observed of the characters; and of what does it afford a strong proof? To what does our author next proceed; and what is observed of it? What is its peculiar character? By what is this implied; and how is it illustrated? From what does it appear that this distinction was not, at first, peculiar to any kind of poetry? When were such poems as were designed to be sung, called odes? In the ode, therefore, what form does poetry retain? From this circumstance, what are we to deduce? By what is it not distinguished from other kinds of poetry; and why? What is the only distinction which belongs to it? What chiefly characterizes it? What effect do music and song have on poetry? As on this is formed the peculiar character of the ode, what follows? What two effects has music on the mind? Hence, the ode may either aspire to what, or to what may it descend? And between these, what is found? Under what four denominations, may all odes be comprised? What are examples of each? What

ANALYSIS.

1. Pastoral Poetry.

2.

A. Its origin and nature.

B. Different views of pastoral life.
a. The middle station to be observed.
c. The scene.

D. The characters.

a. Their employments.

E. The fathers of pastoral poetry.
a. Their respective characteristics.
F. Modern pastoral writers.

a. Their relative merits.

Lyric Poetry.

A. The definition and nature of the ode. a. Different kinds of odes.

b. Enthusiasm its chief characteristic. c. Pindar-Horace.

d. French and English writers of odes.

LECTURE XL.

DIDACTIC POETRY.....DESCRIPTIVE POETRY.

HAVING treated of pastoral and lyric poetry, I proceed next to didactic poetry; under which is included a numerous class of writings. The ultimate end of all poetry, indeed of every composition, should be to make some useful impression on the mind. This useful impression is most commonly made in poetry, by indirect methods; as by fable, by narration, by representation of characters; but didactic poetry openly professes its intention of conveying knowledge and instruction. It differs, therefore, in the form only, not in the scope and substance, from a philosophical, a moral, or a critical treatise in prose. At the same time, by means of its form, it has several advantages over prose instruction. By the charm of versification and numbers, it renders instruction more agreeable; by the descriptions, episodes, and other embellishments, which it may interweave, it detains, and engages the fancy; it fixes also useful circumstances more deeply in the memory. Hence, it is a field wherein a poet may gain great honour, may display both much genius, and much knowledge and judgment.

It may be executed in different manners. The poet may choose some instructive subject, and he may treat it regularly, and in form; or, without intending a great or regular work, he may only inveigh against particular vices, or make some moral observations on human life and characters, as is commonly done in satires and epistles. All these come under the denomination of didactic poetry. The highest species of it, is a regular treatise on some philosophical, grave, or useful subject. Of this nature we have several, both ancient and modern, of great merit and character: such as Lucretius's six books De Rerum Natura, Virgil's Georgics, Pope's Essay on Criticism, Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination, Armstrong on Health, Horace's, Vida's, and Boileau's Art of Poetry.

In all such works, as instruction is the professed object, the fundamental merit consists in sound thought, just principles, clear and apt illustrations. The poet must instruct; but he must study, at the same time, to enliven his instructions, by the introduction of such figures, and such circumstances, as may amuse the imagination, may conceal the dryness of his subject, and embellish it with poetical painting. Virgil, in his Georgics, presents us here with a perfect model. He has the art of raising and beautifying the most trivial circumstances in rural life. When he is going to say that the labour of the country must begin in spring, he expresses himself thus:

Vere novo, gelidus canis cum montibus humor
Liquitur, et Zephyro putris se gleba resolvit ;

Depresso incipiat jam tum mihi Taurus aratro
Ingemere, et sulco attritus splendescere vomer.*

I. 43.

Instead of telling his husbandman in plain language, that his crops will fail through bad management, his language is,

Heu, magnum alterias frustra spectabis acervum,
Concussaque famem in silvis solabere quercu.t

1. 158.

Instead of ordering him to water his grounds, he presents us with a beautiful landscape.

Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam

Elicit? illa cadens, raucum per lævia murmur
Saxa ciet, scatebrisque arentia temperat arva.‡

I. 108.

In all didactic works, method and order are essentially requisite; not so strict and formal as in a prose treatise; yet such as may exhibit clearly to the reader a connected train of instruction.Of the didactic poets, whom I before mentioned, Horace, in his Art of Poetry, is the one most censured for want of method. Indeed, if Horace be deficient in any thing throughout many of his writings, it is in this, of not being sufficiently attentive to juncture and connexion of parts. He writes always with ease and gracefulness; but often in a manner somewhat loose and rambling. There is, however, in that work much good sense, and excellent criticism; and, if it be considered as intended for the regulation of the Roman drama, which seems to have been the author's chief purpose, it will be found to be a more complete and regular treatise, than under the common notion of its being a system of the whole poetical art. With regard to episodes and embellishments, great liberty is allowed to writers of didactic poetry. We soon tire of a continued series of instructions, especially in a poetical work, where we look for entertainment. The great art of rendering a didactic poem interesting, is to relieve and amuse the reader, by connecting some agreeable episodes with the principal subject. These are always the parts of the work which are best known, and which contribute most to support the reputation of the poet. The principal beauties of Virgil's Georgics lie in digressions of this kind, in which the au

* While yet the Spring is young, while earth unbinds
Her frozen bosom to the western winds;
While mountain snows dissolve against the sun,
And streams yet new from precipices run;
Ev'n in this early dawning of the year,

Produce the plough and yoke the sturdy steer,
And goad him till he groans beneath his toil,
Till the bright share is buried in the soil.

On others' crops you may with envy look,
And shake for food the long abandon'd oak.
Behold when burning suns, or Sirius' beams
Strike fiercely on the field and withering stems,
Down from the summit of the neighbouring hills,
O'er the smooth stones he calls the bubbling rills;
Soon as he clears whate'er their passage stay'd,
And marks their future current with his spade,
Before him scattering they prevent his pains,
And roll with hollow murmurs o'er the plains.

DRYDEN

DRYDEN.

WARTON

thor has exerted all the force of his genius; such as the prodigies. that attended the death of Julius Cæsar, the praises of Italy, the happiness of a country life, the fable of Aristeus, and the moving tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. In like manner the favourite passages in Lucretius's work, and which alone could render such a dry and abstract subject tolerable in poetry, are the digressions on the evils of superstition, the praise of Epicurus and his philosophy, the description of the plague, and several other incidental illustrations, which arc remarkably elegant, and adorned with a sweetness and harmony of versification peculiar to that poet. There is, indeed, nothing in poetry, so entertaining or descriptive, but what a didactic writer of genius may be allowed to introduce in some part of his work; provided always, that such episodes arise naturally from the main subject; that they be not disproportioned in length to it; and that the author know how to descend with propriety to the plain, as well as how to rise to the bold and figured style.

Much art may be shown by a didactic poet in connecting his episodes happily with his subject. Virgil is also distinguished for his address in this point. After seeming to have left his husbandmen, he again returns to them very naturally by laying hold of some rural circumstance, to terminate his digression. Thus, having spoken of the battle of Pharsalia, he subjoins immediately, with much art:

Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum finibus illis
Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro,
Exesa inveniet scabra rubigine pila;

Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanes,
Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.*

GEO. I. 493.

In English, Dr. Akenside has attempted the most rich and poetical form of didactic writing in his Pleasures of the Imagination; and though, in the execution of the whole, he is not equal, he has, in several parts, succeeded happily, and displayed much genius. Dr. Armstrong, in his Art of Preserving Health, has not aimed at so high a strain as the other. But he is more equal; and maintains throughout a chaste and correct elegance.

Satires and epistles naturally run into a more familiar style, than solemn philosophical poetry. As the manners and characters, which occur in ordinary life, are their subject, they require being treated with somewhat of the ease and freedom of conversation, and hence it is commonly the 'musa pedestris,' which reigns in such compositions.

Satire, in its first state among the Romans, had a form different from what it afterwards assumed. Its origin is obscure, and has given occasion to altercation among critics. It seems to have been at first a relic of the ancient comedy, written partly in prose, partly

Then, after length of time, the lab'ring swains
Who turn the turf of these unhappy plains,
Shall rusty arms from the plough'd furrows take,
And over empty helmets pass the rake;
Amus'd at antique titles on the stones,
And mighty relics of gigantic bones.

DRYDEN.

in verse, and abounding with scurrility. Ennius and Lucilius corrected its grossness; and at last, Horace brought it into that form, which now gives the denomination to satirical writing. Refor.nation of manners, is the end which it professes to have in view; and in order to this end, it assumes the liberty of boldly censuring vice, and vicious characters. It has been carried on in three different manners, by the three great ancient satirists, Horace, Juvenal, and Perseus. Horace's style has not much elevation. He entitles his satires, 'Sermones,' and seems not to have intended rising much higher than prose put into numbers. His manner is easy and graceful. They are rather the follies and weaknesses of mankind, than their enormous vices, which he chooses for the object of his satire. He reproves with a smiling aspect; and while he moralizes like a sound philosopher, discovers, at the same time, the politeness of a courtier. Juvenal is much more serious and declamatory. He has more strength and fire, and more elevation of style, than Horace; but is greatly inferior to him in gracefulness and ease. His satire is more zealous, more sharp and pointed, as being generally directed against more flagitious characters. As Scaliger says of him, 'ardet, instat, jugulat;' whereas Horace's character is, admissus circum præcordia ludit.' Perseus has a greater resemblance of the force and fire of Juvenal, than of the politeness of Horace. He is distinguished for sentiments of noble and sublime morality. He is a nervous and lively writer; but withal, often harsh and obscure.

Poetical epistles, when employed on moral or critical subjects, seldom rise into a higher strain of poetry than satires. In the form of an epistle, indeed, many other subjects may be handled, and either love poetry, or elegiac, may be carried on; as in Ovid's Epistolæ Herodium, and his Epistolæ de Ponto. Such works as these are designed to be merely sentimental; and as their merit consists in being proper expressions of the passion or sentiment which forms the subject, they may assume any tone of poetry that is suited to it. But didactic epistles, of which I now speak, seldom admit of much elevation. They are commonly intended as observations on authors, or on life and characters; in delivering which, the poet does not purpose to compose a formal treatise, or to confine himself strictly to regular method; but gives scope to his genius on some particular theme, which, at the time, has prompted him to write. In all didactic poetry of this kind, it is an important rule, 'quicquid præcipies, esto brevis.' Much of the grace, both of satirical and epistolary writing, consists in a spirited conciseness. This gives to such composition an edge and a liveliness, which strike the fancy, and keep attention awake. Much of their merit depends also on just and happy representations of characters. As they are not supported by those high beauties of descriptive and poetical language which adorn other compositions, we expect, in return, to be entertained with lively paintings of men and manners, which are always pleasing ; and in these, a cerain sprightliness and turn of wit finds its proper place. The higher species of poetry seldom admit it; but here it is seasonable and beautiful.