No. CXXIX. ON THE PREVAILING TASTE

S purfuit.

IN POETRY.

WEET poefy! thou lovelieft object of intellectual But I am running into a rhapsody, when I intended only a differtation. It is, indeed, difficult not to be tranfported beyond the limits of cool criticifm, in contemplating the beauties which the magic hand of the poet raifes around, with all the creative power of a real enchantment. From the cares of gain, the toils of ambition, the noife, the hurry, the vexation of a difordered world, we rife on the wings of poefy to ethereal regions, where all is fublime and tranquil; or are wafted to vifionary fcenes, in which are difplayed all the delicious fweets of a paradife and an elyfium. Away, ye fordid objects; ye pollutions and incumbrances of the pure fpirit! Man is not tied down to you. Providence, in compassion to wretched mortals, has given them a power of forfaking this low orb, and foaring awhile, all mind, all fpirit, all extafy, in the car of the fwan, on the wings of the eagle.

Reafon alone, with all her pretenfions, is feldom fufficient to foothe our cares, and compofe our paffions; but melody and fancy united with her, are capable of pouring balm into the wounded heart. In all nations, and in all ranks of the people, fome fpecies of poetry has been cultivated; and a tafte for it was undoubtedly implanted in our nature, that the fore evils of reality might often be alleviated by the fweets of fiction. When Pandora's box was opened on mankind, and mifery diffused on every fide, fancy, as well as hope, kindly lingered for our confolation.

While we are tracing the love of fong from the favoured ifles of the Southern Ocean, to the regions of Iceland, we are naturally tempted to dwell, with particular attention, on the poetical tafte of our own country, and our own times.

I think

fevere criticisms of the late biographical preface to the works of Gray, will, perhaps, contribute to explode a moft delightful ftyle of pure poetry; of poetry, converfant folely in the regions of fancy, and clothed in a luminous and mufical diction appropriated to itself, and most remote from all that is profaic. Very high commendations are due to Mr. Anftey, to the author of a poetical epiftle to Sir William Chambers, to Mr. Hayley, and to feveral others who are well known to fame for their fuccessful labours in the school of Pope; but, at leaft, an equal fhare of praise ought to be paid to the fcholars of Milton and Spenfer;-fuch as Mr. Mafon, and the two poetical brothers. With refpect to Gray, he has received his tribute of applaufe from a difcerning public, and has certainly deferved it. The heart and the imagination have given it him; and they who can fee no beauty in his verfe, may probably fucceed in writing a lampoon; but would probably fall far fhort of the poet whom they cenfure, in lyric and elegiac poetry.

None can entertain a higher veneration for our late Prefatory Biographer of the poets than myself, and I was therefore greatly concerned to fee him expofed to cenfure by an uncandid, not to fay injudicious, piece of criticism on the poems of Gray. He indeed allows the merit of the elegy, but examines and cenfures the odes with every appearance of wanton malignity. Who but muft lament that the folid critic and moralit fhould have been fo much under the influence of envy. and jealoufy, as to treat the fame of his cotemporary, the illuftrious Gray, with fingular harshness, in a work which contains very candid accounts of a Sprat and a Yalden, a Duke and a Broome, and of others, with whom, if Gray is compared, he will appear, as Shakefpeare fays, like Hyperion to a Satyr.

The late collection of poets has restored to temporary life many a fickly and dying poet, who was haftening to his proper place, the tomb of oblivion. Why was any more paper wafted on Dorfet, Halifax, Stepney, Walih, and Blackmore? How can a work pretend to the comprehenfive title of the Body of English Poetry, in which the works of Spenfer and Shakespeare are omitted to

make

make room for fuch writers as King or Ambrofe Philips? The writer of the prefaces is, indeed, fufficiently willing to throw the blame from himself on the compilers, whom he was not permitted, or did not endeavour to controul. A felection, formed under the direction of true tafte, would have answered the two great ends of the publication which it has now fruftrated; it would have amply paid the bookfellers, and reflected honour on English literature. Then should we have seen, in the place of Rofcommon and Rochester, Pomfret and Fenton, the works of Goldfmith, of Glover, of Mafon, of Aikin, of Carter, of Beattie, of the Wartons, of Anftey, and of many others, who would shine among the Hughes's, Pitts, and Savages, like the moon among the diminished conftellations.

Upon the many and excellent living writers of poetry we may obferve, that though the diftrefsful times of war and political animofity are unfavourable to the gentle arts of verfe; yet the active and polifhed genius of this nation feems capable of furmounting all obftacles in letters, as its manly fpirit has ultimately borne all before it in the unhappy contefts of war.

No. CXXX. ON THE PECULIAR DANGER OF FALLING INTO INDOLENCE IN A LITERARY AND RETIRED LIFE.

T is certain that, as our ancestors were induced to found colleges by religious motives, fo they chiefly intended them to answer the purposes of religion. Thofe pious benefactors to mankind did not mean to eftablish feminaries to prepare men for the world, but to teach them to defpife it. But more enlightened periods than thofe in which thefe worthies lived, have difcovered, that man beft obeys his Maker when he takes an active part in the duties of fociety.

A long refidence in a college is, perhaps, fcarcely lefs unfavourable to devotion than to focial activity. For devotion depends chiefly on lively affections, exercifed and agitated by the viciffitudes of hope and fear

in

in the various tranfactions and events of human intercourse. He, who is almoft placed beyond the reach of fortune in the shelter of a cloyfter, may, indeed, be led by the ftatutes of the Inftitution to attend his chapel, and doze over his cushion, but he will not feel, in any peculiar manner, the impulfe of devotional fervour. The man who is engaged in the busy and honourable duties of active life, flies from the world to the altar for comfort and refreshment; but the cloistered reclufe, pants, while he is kneeling in all the formalities of religion, for the pleafures and employments of that world from which he is fecluded. During feveral centuries, a great part of mankind was confined in monafteries, folely for the advancement of religion and learning; yet never was the earth more benighted than in thofe periods, by bigotry and ignorance. Nor will any one affert, that in fubfequent times, and in modern univerfities, the improvements in knowledge and religion have been, in any degree, proportioned to the numbers of those who have been separated from the world to facilitate their cultivation. The truth feems to be, that when the common incentives to industry are removed, and all the natural wants fupplied without the neceflity of exertion, man degenerates, as the pure waters of the river ftagnate and become putrid in the pool. At left, the boafting poffeffor of reafon contents himself with dreaming "the blank of life along," with no other proofs of existence than the wants of the animal nature. Take away love, ambition, the changes and chances of this mortal life, and man will be contented to eat, drink, fleep, and die.

Nor in colleges alone, though they may be confidered as the temples of indolence, but in common life alfo, the human mind becomes torpid, as the neceflity of exertion is diminished. He who, confiding in the poffeffion of a fortune for his happiness, avoids the avocations of a profeffion, and what he calls the fatiguing parts of study, will foon lofe thofe powers of mental activity which he has not refolution to employ. If he does not gradually degenerate to a level with the irrational creation, he will not long be distant from the vegetable. When the habits are irretrievably confirmed, it might

perhaps

perhaps be happy, if his nature would permit him to become at laft impaffive and quiefcent; but as fpontaneous fermentation takes place in maffes of putrefaction, fo, in the mind which has ceased to be exercised by its own efforts, emotions and habits will voluntarily arife both offenfive and dangerous Pride and envy, conceit and obftinacy, felfifhne and fenfuality, are among the ugly daughters of inlence.

It may appear paradoxical, but it is certainly an opinion authorized by experience, that an active life is the most friendly to contemplation. The fire of the mind, like culinary fire, has burned with a clear and conftant flame, when opened and ventilated by perpetual motion, as it has been finothered and extinguished in smoke, when fuffered to remain long without difturbance. The best, and many of the most voluminous writers, acted fill more than they wrote. What could be more unlike the life of the cloister than the lives of Xenophon, Julius Cefar, Erafmus, and a thousand others, whofe days were fo engaged in negociation, in felates, in battles, in travelling, that it is not easy to conceive how they could find time even to write fo great a quantity as they certainly compofed? But fuch are the effects of affiduity, of an uninterrupted accumulation of efforts, that he who has been excited to restless activity by the fpurs of honour, intereft, and a generofity of nature, has frequently accomplished more by himfelf, than a thoufand of his fellow-creatures employed in the fame (phere, and furnished by nature, with equal abilities for improvement. A hackney writer of catch-penny compilations, the printer of a newfpaper, the maker of a magazine, though engaged in a multiplicity of daily and various avocations, will perform, in a few months, a portion of literary labour, which shall infinitely exceed that of whole colleges, of thofe who flumber, or wafte their activity on hounds and horfes on the borders of the muddy Cam, and the flowly winding Charwell.

But it avails little to point out the diforders of literary indolence, without endeavouring to fuggeft a remedy. It appears then to me, that thofe whom. Providence has bleffed with leifure, and the opportunity

of