the Drury-lane theatre in 1747, and was meant to usher in that better choice of plays which took place under the management of his friend Garrick. The sketch of the vicissitudes of the English drama is drawn with justness and spirit, and the concluding appeal to the good-sense and taste of the audience is truly dignified. Another prologue, to the benefit-play given to Milton's grand-daughter, is likewise much superior to the ordinary strain of these compositions. The Odes of Johnson have, I think, the same air of study, the same frigid elegance, which he has derided in those of Akenside. The sublimer flights of the lyric muse he has judiciously not attempted, conscious of his want of enthusiasm ; his want of gaiety equally unfitted him for her sprightly strains. The pieces denominated from the four seasons of the year have little characteristic painting: he was, indeed, precluded by corporeal defects from any lively perception of the imagery imagery of rural nature. The translation of Anacreon's "Dove" is, however, very happily executed. Cowley would have done it with scarcely more ease, and with less elegance. There is one piece, written, too, at an advanced age, which may be produced as an example of perfection in its kind-I allude to the stanzas on the death of Levett. I know not the poem of equal length in which it would be so difficult to change a single line, or even word, for the better. The subject supplied matter neither for sublimity nor pathos: the mature decease of a man in obscure life, and with no other quality than humble utility, was to be recorded; and who but Johnson could have filled such a meagre outline with such admirable finishing? Every line is a trait of character or sentiment. What a picture of life is given in the following stanza! In misery's darkest caverns known, His useful care was ever nigh, Where hopeless anguish pour'd his grean, And lonely want retir'd to die. I confess, I confess, that much as I admire the flights of a poetical imagination, it is these sober serious strains to which at present I recur with most delight. Your taste may reasonably be different; yet I trust in the solidity of your understanding to lead you to set a just value upon that verse, which, while it gratifies the ear, also touches and meliorates the heart. Farewell! LETTER LETTER XX. I AM tempted, my dear Mary, for the subject of a concluding letter, to desert the collection in which we have been so long immersed, and direct your notice to two very modern poets, whose reputation, now sealed by death, justly recommends them to every lover of the Muses: these are BEATTIE and COWPER. The "Minstrel" of the former, his principal performance, is a fancy-piece, the theme of which is the supposed birth and education of a poet. The name of Minstrel is not very happily applied; since the character described widely differs from that musical songster of a rude age; nor can we find any "Gothic days" which suit the circumstances of the tale. In fact, the author's plan is crude and incongruous; and the chief value of his performance consists in descriptions and sentiments addressed to the feelings of all who have a perception of natural and moral beauty, apart from any particular appropriation. There is, however, something very pleasing in the portrait of his Edwin, who was "no vulgar hoy," but is represented as marked from his cradle with those dispositions and propensities which were to be the foundation of his future destiny. I believe it would be difficult in real biography to trace any such early indications of a genius exclusively fitted for poetry; nor do I imagine that an exquisite sensibility to the sublime and beautiful of nature is ever to be found in minds which have not been opened by a degree of culture. Yet there is a seeming probability in the contrary supposition, which may very well serve the purpose of fiction, and it leads to some beautiful description of natural scenery. The measure chosen by Beattie is the stanza of Spenser, which he manages with great address and seeming ease. Its Gothic |