more fenfible of the charms of a tree, or a flowret, than a common and inelegant fpectator. They have dwelt with rapture on a fine defcription of the Vale of Tempe, they have entered into all the delight which a Shakespeare or a Milton meant to communicate in their enchanting pictures of flowery and fylvan scenes, and yet can walk through a wood, or tread on a bank of violets and primrofes, without appearing to be affected with any peculiar pleafure. This is certainly the effect of a fuperficial judgment; for there is no truth of which philofophers have been longer convinced, than that the realities of nature infinitely exceed the most perfect productions of imitating art.

The beauty of colour, though juftly esteemed fubordinate to that of shape, is yet found to delight the eye more immediately, and more univerfally. When colour and shape are united in perfection, he who can view them with infenfibility, muft refign all pretenfions to delicacy of perception. Such an union has been ufually effected by nature in the formation of a Яower.

There is fcarcely a fingle object in all the vegetable world, in which fo many agreeable qualities are combined, as in the queen of flowers, the rofe. Nature certainly meant to regale the fenfes of her favourite with an object, which prefents to him at once freshness, fragrancy, colour, and fhape. The very foul feems to be refreshed on the bare recollection of the pleasure which the fenfes receive in contemplating, in a fine vernal morning, the charms of the pink, the violet, the honey-fuckle, the hyacinth, the narciffus, the jonquil, the rocket, the tulip, and a thousand others, in every variety of figure, fçent, and hue; for nature is no lefs remarkable for the accuracy and beauty of her works, than for variety and profufion. Defects are always difcovered in the works of art when they are examined with a microfcope; but a close examination of a leaf of a flower, is like taking off a veil from the face of beauty. The finest needle ever polifhed, and pointed by the moft ingenious artift, appears, when it is viewed by the folar microscope, quite obtufe; while the fting of a bee, however magnified, ftill retains all

its original acuteness of termination. The ferrated border of the petal of a flower, and the fringe on the wing of a fly, difplay an accuracy of delineation which no pencil ever yet could rival. The tafte of the florift has not, indeed, been much admired, or generally afpired at; while that of the connoiffeur in painting, is confidered as a mark of elegance of character, and an honourable diftinction. Yet, furely, it is an inconfiftency to be tranfported with the workmanship of a poor mortal, and feel no raptures in furveying those highly finished pictures, in which it is easy to trace the finger of the Deity.

The poets have given us moft luxuriant defcriptions of gardens and of rural fcenery; and though they are thought by fome to have exceeded reality, they have indeed fcarcely equalled it. Enter a modern fhrubbery, formed of a felection of the moft agreeable flowering fhrubs, and confider, whether there is any thing in the garden of Alcinous, in the fields of Elyfium, in Milton's Paradife, to be compared with the intermixture of the lilac, the fyringa, the laburnum, the double-bloffomed cherry, peach, and almond; the rubinia, the jeffamine, the mofs-rofe, the magnolia, and a great cumber of others, lefs common, but not of greater, though perhaps of equal, beauty. As we walk under clusters of flowers, white as fnow, tinged with gold, purple as the grape, blue as the expanfe of heaven, and blufhing like the cheek of youth, we are led to imagine ourselves in fairy land, or in another and a better world; where every delicate fenfe is delighted, and all around breathes fragrance, and expands beauty; where the heart feems to participate in the joy of laughing Nature. Groves and gardens have, indeed, been always fuppofed to foothe the mind into a placid temper, peculiarly favourable to the indulgence of contemplation.

The excellent tafte which now prevails in gardening, ufually combines the fhrubbery and the grove. The tall trees of the foreft conftitute the back ground in the living landscape, and the fhrubs, beneath and before them, form the underwood, in a delightful refemblance to the natural coppice, and the unculti

vated foreft. The plane tree is one of the first beauties among those which are now moft frequently planted in our gardens. Its large leaf, and permanent verdure, render it peculiarly fitted to afford a fhade. I always confider it as a claffical tree, for the antient writers often mention it; and fome of the finest philofophical dialogues of antiquity paffed under the cool retreat of its broad and vivid foliage. Socrates fought no other theatre than the turf that grew under the plane tree, on the banks of the Iliffus. The weeping-willow, that droops over the babbling ftream, conftitutes one of thofe fine beauties which partake of the melancholy and romantic. Such, indeed, are the charms of its luxuriant branches, that, when properly fituated, it is of itself an enchanting picture. Beautiful as are all the features of the modern garden, I should not hesitate to allot the firft place in an eftimate of horticultural graces to the weeping-willow. The weeping birch is at all times pleafing, and a moft delightful object in winter. Obferve yonder tall ftem, rifing from the interstices of a craggy rock, covered with a rind white and gloffy like filver, and drooping with ten thousand fine twigs, fo attenuated as to appear almoft capillary. View it when fprinkled with hoar froft, or with fnow, and if you have a foul capable of being charmed with natural beauty, you will be fenfibly affected at the fight with a fweet complacency. An old oak is not often found in our gardens becaufe of its tardy vegetation; but whenever it appears in them, it produces all the effect of graceful majefty, and one may contemplate it for hours with ftill new delight. The delicate acacia, the conical poplar of Lombardy, the flowery chefnut, the foft lime, the elegant mountain afh, the afpiring fir, the gloffy laurel, thefe all form fo various and delightful pictures, that while I am permitted to expatiate over the lawn, and penetrate the mazes of the wood and garden, I fhall not repine that it is not my lot to faunter in the picture galleries of a palace.

The tafte for plantation prevails greatly in this country, and it ought to be encouraged, as it is a neverfailing fource of pleasure to the planter, and of inprovement to the community. But it is to be hoped, that

while we plant the tree for ornament, we shall not forget to drop the acorn, and raise that heart of oak, which bears an analogy to the bravery of the people; and has ever been to this land, et præfidium et decus, both a bulwark and a beauty.

No. CXVIII. ON THE CHARACTER OF

ADDISON AS A POET.

T

HE luftre of a great name not only sets off real beauties to the greatest advantage, but adds a grace to deformity, and converts a defect to an excellence. The enthusiastical admirers of a favourite author, like ardent lovers, view thofe objects with rapture, which caufe in others indifference or difguft. Without confidering the inequalities of the fame genius, and the diverfities of fubjects, they are led to conclude, from the excellence of one part of an author's works, that all are excellent; and that whatever bears his fignature, is genuine wit, and just taste.

I know not whether even Mr. Addifon, who is fo defervedly esteemed the honour of our nation, was not indebted for a small part of his reputation to the blind bigotry of prejudice. On any other fuppofition, I know not how he could have been admired as a very eminent poet. The difpaffionate temperature which conftituted a folid judgment, and qualified him for the cool difquifitions of criticifin and morality, rendered him incapable of that animated fpirit which is the foul of poetry. But the reader is unwilling to believe, that fo accurate a critic, and fo correct a writer, is himself faulty; and, therefore, when he paffes from his profe to his poetry, and obferves a manifeft inferiority and deficiency of merit in the latter, he rather inclines to diftruft his own judgment than the abilities of the author. Reader after reader has toiled through the fame dull rhimes, perhaps blind to their faults, or, if fenfible of their defects, yet inclined to join in their praise, in oppofition

to

to conviction, from a dread of the imputation of a depraved tafte. Had not a veneration for his name prevented critics from speaking their real fentiments, though Addison would, as a moral effayift, moft juftly have been called the Socrates, Plato, or Xenophon of his age; yet he would never have been esteemed the firft of poets.

It would be injuftice, while we infpect these volumes, to pass over in filence, the elegant poem which is prefixed to the works of Addison, on the death of their author. The melancholy flow of the verfe is well adapted to exprefs the tenderness of the fentiments. The beauty of the imagery, and the energy of the expreffion, entitle this little piece to a very refpectable rank among the elegiac compofitions of the English writers. It was for a long time little regarded; but the attention lately paid to it, and the commendations beftowed on it, are proofs that literary merit, however unnoticed for a time, through accident, prejudice, or party, is fure to receive the applause it deferves from impartial pofterity.

At the end of the verfes of Addison to Mr. Dryden, we are told, that the author was but twenty-two years of age when he wrote them. Whether the age was affixed to extenuate the imperfections, or to enhance the merits of the poem, certain it is, that both thefe intentions are fruftrated by its extreme infignificance and futility. The production is unworthy the age of twentytwo. Mr. Pope is known to have written his paftorals, which infinitely exceed the verfification of Addifon, at fixteen. And Milton acquired an elegance in Latin verfe at an earlier period. The thoughts in this piece are not ftriking, the ftyle is contemptible, and the negligence in the rhime alone would, in the prefent refinement of tafte, confign the work to oblivion.

That all his pieces are upon a level with this, cannot be afferted. That fome of them abound with grand conceptions, and have many good lines, must be con feffed. But allowing Addison all the merit in his poetry, which candour, or even partiality in his favour can allow, he never can be justly esteemed one of the first poets of the nation. I never heard that Socrates

increased