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epiftolary ftyle, than perhaps any letters which have appeared in the English lan guage. Blair.

$128. Lyric Poetry. On PINDAR. Pindar, the great father of lyric poetry, has been the occafion of leading his imitators into fome defects. His geniu was fublime; his expreffions are beautiful and happy; his defcriptions pictu.efque. But Fading it a very barren fubject to fing the praises of thofe who had gained the prize the public games, he is perpetually di-. rive, and fills up his poems with fables of the gods and heroes, that have little connection either with his fubject, or with one another. The ancients admired him greatly; but as many of the hiftories of particular families and cities, to which he alludes, are now unknown to us, he is fo obfcure, partly from his fubjects, and partly tom his rapid, abrupt manner of treating them, that, notwithstanding the beauty of his expreffion, our pleafure in reading him smach diminished. One would imagire, that many of his modern imitators ought the best way to catch his fpirit, was to imitate his diforder and obfcurity. In feveral of the chorufes of Euripides and Sophocles, we have the fame kind of lyric oetry as in Pindar, carried on with more learnefs and connection, and at the fame ime with much fublimity.

Ibid.

129. On HORACE, as a Lyric Poet. Of all the writers of odes, ancient or modern, there is none that, in point of Correctness, harmony, and happy exprefon, can vie with Horace. He has decended from the Pindaric rapture to a more moderate degree of elevation; and ins connected thought, and good fenfe, ith the highest beauties of poetry. He oes not often alpire beyond that middle egion, which I mentioned as belonging the ode; and thofe odes, in which he ttempts the fublime, are perhaps not always his beft. The peculiar character, En which he excels, is grace and elegance;

• There is no ode whatever of Horace's, with at great beauties. But though I may be fingular 1 my opinion, I cannot help thinking that in me of thofe oles which have been much aded for fublimity (fuch as Ode iv. Lib. iv. Qualem miniftrum fulminis alitem, &c.") there appears fomewhat of a trained and forced fit to be lofty. The genius of this amiable

fhews itself, according to my judgment, to mater advantage, in themes of a more temperate

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130. On CASIMIR, and other modern Lyric Poets.

Among the Latin poets of later ages, there have been many imitators of Horace. One of the molt diflinguifhed is Cafimir, a Polish poet of the last century, who wrote four books of odes. In graceful eafe of expreffion, he is far inferior to the Roman. He oftener affects the fublime; and in the attempt, like other lyric writers, frequently becomes harsh and unnatural. But, on feveral occafions, he discovers a confiderable degree of original genius, and poetical fire. Buchanan, in fome of his lyric compofitions, is very elegant and claffical.

Among the French, the odes of Jean Baptifte Rouffeau have been much and julily celebrated. They poffels great beauty, both of fentiment and expreffion. They are animated, without being rhapto dical; and are not inferior to any poetical productions in the French language.

In our own lauguage, we have feveral lyric compofitions of confiderable merit. Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia, is well known. Mr. Grey is diftinguished in fome of his odes, both for tenderness and fublimity; and in Dodley's Mifcellanies, feveral very beautiful lyric poems are to be found. As to profeiled Pindaric odes, they are, with a few exceptions, fo incoherent, as feldom to be intelligible. Cowley, at all times harth, is doubly fo in his Pindaric compofitions. In his Anacreontic odes, he is much happier. They are fmooth and elegant; and, indeed, the most agreeable and the most perfect, in their kind, of all Mr. Cowley's poems. Ibid.

§ 131. On the different Kinds of Poetical Compofition in the Sacred Books; and of the dytinguishing Characters of the chief Writers. ft. Of the Didactic.

The feveral kinds of poetical compeition which we find in fcripture, are chi fly the Gg 2 diaftic,

didactic, elegiac, pastoral, and lyric. Of the didactic fpecies of poetry, the Book of Proverbs is the principal inftance. The nine firft chapters of that book are highly poetical, adorned with many diftinguished graces, and figures of expreffion. At the 1oth chapter, the ftyle is fenfibly altered, and defcends into a lower ftrain, which is continued to the end; retaining however that lententious, pointed manner, and that artful construction of period, which diftinguishes all the Hebrew poetry. The Book of Ecclefiaftes comes likewife under this head; and fome of the Pfalms, as the 119th in particular. $132. Of the Elegiac and Paftoral Poetry

of Scripture.

Blair.

Of elegiac poetry, many very beautiful fpecimens occur in Scripture; fuch as the lamentation of David over his friend Jonathan; feveral paffages in the prophetical books; and feveral of David's Pfalms, compofed on occafions of diftrefs and mourning. The 42d Pfalm, in particular, is, in the highest degree, tender and plaintive. But the molt regular and perfect elegiac compofition in the Scripture, perhaps in the whole world, is the book, entitled the Lamentations of Jeremiah. As the prophet mourns in that book over the deftruction of the Temple, and the Holy City, and the overthrow of the whole ftate, he affembles all the affecting images which a fubject fo melancholy could fuggeft. The compofition is uncommonly artificial. By turns the prophet, and the city of Jerufalem, are introduced, as pouring forth their forrows; and in the end, a chorus of the people fend up the moft earnest and plaintive fupplications to God. The lines of the original too, as may, in part, appear from our tranflation, are longer than is ufual in the other kinds of Hebrew poetry; and the melody is rendered thereby more flowing, and better adapted to the querimonious ftrain of elegy.

The Song of Solomon affords us a high exemplification of paftoral poetry. Confidered with respect to its fpiritual meaning, it is undoubtedly a 'myftical allegory; in its form, it is a dramatic paftoral, or a perpetual dialogue between perfonages in the character of thepherds: and, fuitably to that form, it is full of rural and pafloral images, from beginning to end. Ibid.

133. On the Lyric Poetry of Scripture. Of lyric poetry, or that which is inten

ded to be accompanied with mufic, the Old Teftament is full. Befides a great number of hymns and fongs, which we find fcattered in the hiftorical and prophetical books, fuch as the fong of Mofes, the fong of Deborah, and many others of like nature, the whole book of Pfalms is to be confidered as a collection of facred odes. In thefe, we find the ode exhibited in all the varieties of its form, and supported with the higheft fpirit of lyric poetry; fometimes fprightly, chearful, and triumphant; fometimes folemn and magnificent; fometimes tender and foft. From these inftances, it clearly appears, that full exemplifications of feveral of the chie there are contained in the holy fcriptures kinds of poetical writing.

Ibid.

$134. A Diversity of Style and Manner a the different Compejers of the Sacred Bu On JOB, DAVID, and ISAIAH.

Among the different compofers of the facred books, there is an evident diverfity of ftyle and manner; and to trace their different characters in this view, will contribute not a little towards our reading their writings with greater advantage. The moft eminent of the facred poets are, the author of the Book of Job, David, and Ifaiah. As the compofitions of David are of the lyric kind, there is a greater variety of ftyle and manner in his works, than in thofe of the other two. The manner in which, confidered merely as a poet, David chiefly excels, is the pleafing, the fcf, and the tender. In his Pfalms, there are many lofty and fublime paffages; but, in ftrength of defcription, he yields to Job; in fublimity, he yields to Ifaiah. It is a fort of temperate grandeur, for which David is chiefly diftinguifhed; and to this he always foon returns, when, upon fom: occafions, he rifes above it. The pfalm in which he touches us moft, are thofe in which he defcribes the happiness of the righteous, or the goodnefs of God; expreffes the tender breathings of a devout mind, or fends up moving and affectionate fupplications to heaven. Ifaiah is, without exception, the most fublime of all poets. This is abundantly visible in our tranflation; and, what is a material circumftance, none of the books of fcripture appear to have been more happily tranflated than the writings of this prophet. Majefty is his reigning character; a majefty more commanding, and more uniformly fupport ed, than is to be found among the rest of

the

the Old Testament poets. He poffeffes, indeed, a dignity and grandeur, both in his conceptions and expreffions, which are altogether unparalleled, and peculiar to himfelf. There is more clearness and order too, and a more vifible diftribution of parts, in his book, than in any other of the prophetical writings.

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$135. O JEREMIAH.

Blair.

which is a part of Arabia; and the imagery employed is generally of a different kind, from what I before fhowed to be peculiar to the Hebrew poets. We meet with no allufions to the great events of facred hiftory, to the religious rites of the Jews, to Lebanon or to Carmel, or any of the peculiarities of the climate of Judæa. We find few comparisons founded on rivers or torrents; there were not familiar objects in Arabia.. But the longest comparison that occurs in the book, is to an object frequent and well known in that region, a brook that fails in the feafon of heat, and disappoints the expectation of the traveller.

When we compare him with the rest of the poetical prophets, we immediately fee in Jeremiah a very different genius. Ifaiah employs himself generally on magnificent fubjects. Jeremiah feldom difcovers any difpofition to be fublime, and inclines always to the tender and elegiac. Ezekiel, in poetical grace and elegance, is much inferior to them both; but he is diftinguished by a character of uncommon force and ardour. To ufe the elegant expreffions of Bishop Lowth, with regard to this Prophet: Eft atrox, vehemens, tragicus; in fenfibus, fervidus, acerbus, indignabundus; in imaginibus, fecundus, "truculentus, et nonnunquam penè defor"mis; in dictione, grandiloquus, gravis, aufterus, et interdùm incultus; frequens in repetitionibus, non decoris aut gratiæ "caufa, fed ex indignatione et violentia. "Quicquid fufceperit tractandum, id fe"dulò perfequitur; in eo unicè hæret de"fixus; a propofito rarò deflectens. In "cæteris, a plerifque vatibus fortaflè fuperatus; fed in eo genere. ad quod vi"detur a natura unicè comparatus, nimirun, vi, pondere, impetu, granditate, "nemo unquam eum fuperavit." The fame learned writer compares Ifaiah to Homer, Jeremiah to Simonides, and Ezekiel to chylus. Most of the book of Ifiah is strictly poetical; of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, not above one half can be held to belong to poetry. Among the minor" and fhall not be found; yea, he shall be prophets, Hofea, Joel, Micah, Habakkuk, and especially Nahum, are diftinguished for poetical fpirit. In the prophecies of Daniel and Jonah, there is no poetry. Ibid.

The poetry, however, of the book of Job, is not only equal to that of any other. of the facred writings, but is fuperior to them all, except thofe of Ifaiah alone. As Ifaiah is the moft fublime, David the most pleafing and tender, fo Job is the most defcriptive, of all the infpired poets. A peculiar glow of fancy, and ftrength of defcription, characterife the author. No writer whatever abounds fo much in metaphors. He may be faid, not to describe, but to render vifible, whatever he treats of. A variety of inftances might be given. Let us remark only those strong and lively colours, with which, in the following paffages, taken from the 18th and 20th chapters of his book, he paints the condition of the wicked; obferve how rapidly his figures rife before us; and what a deep impreffion, at the fame time, they leave on the imagination. "Knoweft thou not this "of old, fince man was placed upon the "earth, that the triumphing of the wicked "is fhort, and the joy of the hypocrite, "but for a moment? Though his excel"lency mount up to the heavens, and his "head reach the clouds, yet he fhall perish "for ever. He fhall fly away as a dream,

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§ 136. On the Book of JOB. It only now remains to fpeak of the book of job. It is known to be extremely ancient; generally reputed the molt ancient of all the poetical books; the author uncertain. It is remarkable, that this book has no connection with the affairs or manters of the Jews, or Hebrews. The fcene is laid in the land of Uz, or Idumæa,

"chafed away, as a vifion of the night. "The eye alfo which faw him, fhall fee "him no more; they which have seen "him, fhall fay, where is he?-He fhall

fuck the poifon of afps, the viper's 66 tongue fhall flay him. In the fulness of "his fufficiency, he fhall be in ftraits; "every hand fhall come upon him. He "fhall flee from the iron weapon, and the "bow of steel fhall ftrike him through. "All darkness shall be hid in his fecret

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"depart. His goods fhall flow away in "the day of wrath. The light of the "wicked thall be put out; the light fhall "be dark in his tabernacle. The fteps "of his fire gth thall be ftraitened, and "his own counsel fhall caft him down. "For he is caft into a net, by his own "feet. He walketh upon a fnare. Ter"rors fhall make him afraid on every fide; "and the robber shall prevail against him. "Brimstone thall be scattered upon his "habitation. His remembrance hall pe"rifh from the earth, and he fhall have "no name in the street. He fhall be dri"ven from light into darkness. They "that come after him fhall be aftonished

"at his day. He fhall drink of the wrath of the Almighty." Blair.

§ 137. On the Iliad of HOMER. The fubject of the Iliad muft unqueftionably be admitted to be, in the main, happily chofen. In the days of Homer, no object could be more fplendid and dignified than the Trojan war. So great a confederacy of the Grecian ftates, under one leader, and the ten years fiege which they carried on against Troy, must have foread far abroad the renown of many military exploits, and interested all Greece in the traditions concerning the heroes who had most eminently fignalized themfelves. Upon thefe traditions, Homer grounded his poem; and though he lived, as is gencrally believed, only two or three centuries after the Trojan war, yet, through the want of written records, tradition muft, by his time, have fallen into the degree of obfcurity moft proper for poetry; and have left him at full liberty to mix as much fable as he pleafed, with the remains of true hiftory. He has not chofen, for his fubject, the whole Trojan war; but, with great judgment, he has felected one part of it, the quarrel betwixt Achilles and Agamemnon, and the events to which that quarrel gave rife; which, though they take up forty-leven days only, yet include the met interefting, and most critical period of the war. By this management, he has given greater unity to what wou'd have otherwife been an unconnected hiftory of battles. He has gained one hero, or principal character, Achilles, who reigns throughout the work; and he has fhewn the pernicious effect of difcord among confederated princes. At the fame time, I admit that Homer is les fortunate in his fubject than Virgil. The plan of the

Eneid includes a greater compaís and a more agreeable diverfity of events; whereas the Iliad is almoft entirely filled with battles.

The praife of high invention has in every age been given to Homer, with the greateft reafon. The prodigious number of incidents, of speeches, of characters divine and human, with which he abounds; the farprifing variety with which he has diverf fied his battles, in the wounds and deaths, and little hiftory-pieces of almost all the perfons flain, difcover an invention next to boundlefs. But the praife of judgment is, in my opinion, no lefs due to Homer, than that of invention. His ftory is all along conducted with great art. He rifes upca us gradually; his heroes are brought oe, one after another, to be objects of our 21tention. The diftrefs thickens, as the por advances; and every thing is to contrived as to aggrandize Achilles, and to render him, as the poet intended he should be, the capital figure.

But that wherein Homer excels all writers, is the characteristical part. Here, he is without a rival. His lively and fri rited exhibition of characters, is, in a great measure, owing to his being fo dramatic a writer, abounding every where with dialogue and converfation. There is much more dialogue in Homer than in Virgil; or, indeed, than in any other poet.

Ibid.

$138. On the Odyffey of HOMER. My obfervations, hitherto, have been made upon the Iliad only. It is neceffa to take fome notice of the Odyffey al Longinus's criticism upon it is not withet foundation, that Homer may, in this peer, be compared to the fetting fun, what grandeur ftill remains, without the heat his meridian beams. It wants the vig and fublimity of the Iliad; yet, at the t time, poffefles fo many beauties, as to be juftly entitled to high praife. It is a very amuling poem, and has much greater v riety than the Iliad; it contains many inte refting ftories; and beautiful defcription We fee every where the fame descriptive and dramatic genius, and the fame fertility of invention, that appears in the other work It defcends indeed from the dignity gods, and heroes, and warlike atchiev ments; but in recompence, we have more pleafing pictures of ancient manners. It ftead of that ferocity which reigns in the Iliad, the Odyffey prefents us with t

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moft amiable images of hofpitality and humanity; entertains us with many a wonderful adventure, and many a landfcape of nature; and inftructs us by a conftant vein of morality and virtue, which runs through the poem. Blair.

§ 139. On the Beauties of VIRGIL. Virgil poffeffes beauties which have justly drawn the admiration of ages, and which, to this day, hold the balance in equilibrium between his fame and that of Homer. The principal and distinguishing excellency of Virgil, and which, in my epinion he poffelles beyond all poets, is tenderness. Nature had endowed him with exquifite fenfibility; he felt every affecting circumftance in the fcenes he describes; and, by a fingle ftroke, he knows how to reach the heart. This, in an epic poem, is the merit next to fublimity; and puts it in an author's power to render his compolition extremely interefting to all readers.

The chief beauty of this kind, in the liad, is the interview of Hector with Andromache. But, in the Eneid, there are many fuch. The fecond book is one of the greatest master-pieces that ever was excuted by any hand; and Virgil feems to have put forth there the whole ftrength of his genius, as the subject afforded a variety of fcenes, both of the awful and tender kind. The images of horror, prefentby a city burned and facked in the night, are finely mixed with pathetic and affecting incidents. Nothing, in any poet, is more beautifully defcribed than the death of old Priam; and the family-pieces of Eneas, Anchifes, and Creufa, are as tender as can be conceived. In many paffiges of the Eneid, the fame pathetic fpirit thines; and they have been always the favourite paffages in that work. The fourth book, for inftance, relating the unLappy paffion and death of Dido, has been always mott justly admired, and abounds with beauties of the highest kind. The interview of Æneas with Andromache and Helenus, in the third book; the epifodes of Pallas and Evander, of Nifus and Euryalus, of Laufus and Mezentius, in the Italian wars, are all striking inftances of the poet's power of raifing the tender emotions. For we muft obferve, that though the Eneid be an unequal poem, and, in fome places, languid, yet there are beauties fcattered through it all; and not a few, even in the laft fix books. The beft

and moft finifhed books, upon the whole, are the first, the fecond, the fourth, the fixth, the feventh, the eighth, and the twelfth. Ibid.

§ 140. On the comparative Merit of HoMER and VIRGIL.

Upon the whole, as to the comparative merit of thofe two great princes of epic poetry, Homer and Virgil, the former muft undoubtedly be admitted to be the greater genius; the latter, to be the more correct writer. Homer was an original in his art, and difcovers both the beauties and the defects, which are to be expected in an original author, compared with thofe who fucceed him; more boldness, more nature and eafe, more fublimity and force; but greater irregularities and negligences in compofition. Virgil has, all along, kept his eye upon Homer; in many places he has not fo much imitated, as he has literally tranflated him. The description of the ftorm, for inftance, in the first Æneid, and Æneas's fpeech upon that occafion, are tranflations from the fifth book of the Odyffey; not to mention almost all the fimiles of Virgil, which are no other than copies of thofe of Homer. The pre-eminence in invention, therefore, muft, beyond doubt, be afcribed to Homer. As to the pre-eminence in judgment, though many critics are difpofed to give it to Virgil, yet, in my opinion, it hangs doubtful. In Homer, we difcern all the Greek vivacity; in Virgil, all the Roman ftatelineis. Homer's imagination is by much the most rich and copious; Virgil's the most chaste and correct. The ftrength of the former lies, in his power of warming the fancy; that of the latter, in his power of touching the heart. Homer's ftyle is more fimple and animated; Virgil's more elegant and uniform. The firit has, on many occafions, a fublimity to which the latter never attains; but the latter, in return, never finks below a certain degree of epic dignity, which cannot fo clearly be pronounced of the former. Not, however, to detract from the admiration due to both thefe great poets, moft of Homer's defects may realonably be imputed, not to his genius, but to the manners of the age in which he lived; and for the feeble paffages of the Eneid, this excufe ought to be admitted, that the neid was left an unfinished work.

Ibid.

To the admirers of polite learning, the Lectures of Dr. Blair, at large, are strongly recomGg 4 mended,

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