THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, OR LITERARY MISCELLANY, FOR JUNE, 1799. FOR THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. The GLEANER, No. VIII. (Continued by another Correfpondent.) "A minute and judicious enumeration of circumftances judicioufly felected is what chiefly difcriminates poetry from history, and renders the former for that reason a more close and faithful reprefentation of nature than the latter. And if our poets would accustom themselves to contemplate fully every object before they attempted to describe it, they would not fail of giving their readers more new and more complete images than they generally do. A pathetic reflection properly introduced into a defcriptive poem will have a greater force and beauty, and more deeply interest a reader than a moral one." DR. WARTON. THE perufal of fome recent defcriptive poems led me lately to remark that a confiderable change had been gradually effected in my fentiments with regard to that species of compofition. Upon very young perfons who have a taste for poetry the most beautiful defcriptions make a feeble impreffion, in comparison of the relation of wonderful incidents and the delineation of the fiercer paffions. The fimplicity and beauty of rural fcenery, the picturefque graces of the ftill landfcape, and the calm life of the fhepherd, fcarcely affect ́the youth whose bofom thrills with vivid emotion at the view of rude fhapelefs rocks, cataracts foaming, the reftlefs waves of the fea, and the perilous grandeur of a martial life. In youth, the defire for novelty is a paffion, and grows by indulgence; objects that continually diverfify their appearance gratify this defire by preLenting a variety of new afpects; and we therefore defire to fee every thing around us alive active and changing. From this propenfity, fpring and autumn continue always to be regar ded as the most delightful feafons of the year. In fairy Tales, Gothic Romances, and even in the greater part of novels, the feries of actions related, and the fucceffion of feelings delineated, are fo different from thofe which occur in ordinary life, that they prefent the most powerful attractions to this rage for novelty. Defcriptive Poetry, on the other hand, is chiefly converfant with objects which have been familiar to us from early infancy, and which have been long divefted of this quality. Thefe objects may ftill continue to please but the pleasure they excite is calm and mild, and does not fill the foul with rapture and transport. The pleasure that arifes from poetical reprefentation is ftill feebler than the impreffion of the original object, and is therefore little relished by the youthful mind. The fources of comparison too, are comparatively fcanty; but when the eye has furveyed numerous groups of varying fcenery, when it has obferved the diftinct characters of the beautiful, the picturefque, the favage, and the fublime, we become 3 E 2 able able to difcriminate their traces in nature, and the impreffion is increased, by this reaction of the mind. The difficulty of execution, which enhances the value of works of art, and produces a fpecies of pleasure in contemplating performances where it has been overcome, is hardly perceived till after repeated attempts at imitation. In defcriptive poetry, this is never obferved till we have experienced the difficulty of conveying, by expreffion, to the mind of others, the impreffion produced by fcenery on our own. The first time we attempt to describe a landscape, our embaraffment is fimilar to that of a perfon who commences landfcape painter without any previous inftructions in the art. The greater attention a perfon gives to the fubject of defcription, the more tenfible he becomes of the difficulty of excellence; and the more delicate our perceptions are, the greater pleasure do we derive from a fuccefsful delineation of those objects which please as they exift in nature. There are two kinds of defcription which have each their proper effect on the mind, when executed with skill, delicacy and grace. The firft fpecies is executed by the accurate enumeration and graphical delineation of particulars; the fecond, by the vivid expreffion of the mental feelings excited by the various objects of nature. A mere enumeration of the feveral parts which enter into the compofition of a groupe of natural objects, or compose the scene intended to be defcribed, has feldom a very powerful effect except on the minds of profeffional men. To the other fpecies of defcriptive compofition, it bears the fame relation as a fyftem of Chronological Tables to Philofophical history. If the objects defcribed are beautiful, we are faintly affected with the fame emotions, as thofe which are produced by the ap pearance of the objects themselves in nature. But as the principal effect is procured by the harmony of the objects among themselves, and the order in which they are difpofed, beauties arife to the man of tafte, who has examined their various relations of harmony and contraft, of which a perfon who is not converfant with fuch topics has no diftant conception. This fpecies of poetical description, therefore, is rather addreffed to profeffional men or conoiffeurs who have ftudied the fubject with accuracy, than to thofe perfons who only trust to nature for exciting the feelings of the heart, and who are uncapable of eftimating the difficulty or rarity of thofe combinations which prefent themselves to their view. Of this fpecies of defcriptive Poetry, Mafon's English Garden exhibits an admirable fpecimen. One perceives immediately that it is the performance of a conoiffeur and artift. A confiderable knowledge of landfcape painting as well as of modern Gardening is required to relish it in a high degree. The fame obfervation applies to Gilpins Poem on landfcape painting. A perfon must be well acquainted with the natural picturefque, before his imagination can fupply the effects of the various fhades of landscape and tints of fky, described in the Poem. There is another, and a more pleafing fpecies of defcriptive poetry, which rather expreffes the emotions which objects excite in the mind, than paints the different groups by means of words; which rather gives the full effect of a fcene than a minute enumeration of its component parts. The groups of whatever kind, are never filent and dead, but the fentiment of the obferver, mingles continually with the description. This is not the delineation of a scene, but the defcription of a perfon obferving a fcene, whofe mind reflects like a mirror the objects by which he is furrounded, and receives the character and colouring with which they are invefted. invefted. Where this preponderance of fentiment occurs in defcription, we are always pleased, because the defcription not only delineates nature when he learns the danger the "tender object of his concern is to "encounter." "manfion, we fhould walk through "this refplendant and fuperb edifice "with indifference, if we were not ftopped on a fudden by the fears but alfo the manner in which the af- "and alarms of Phaeton's father, on fects us. To the production of every "the indifcreet request of his fon. It vivid emotion of the foul, we require is his tenderness, the force of sentifomething to intereft our fympa- "ment which animates him, when thy. The defcription of an Arabian he lavishes his counfels on the defart agitated by the whirlwind, "rafh young man. that throws a with columns of burning fand, rushing gloom over the palace, and fixes all along with frightful velocity, burnish-our attention on the father's grief ed dimly red by funbeams which penetrate their whole extent, is not half fo terrible as it appears, when fome hapless traveller is introduced affected with every emotion which such a scene tends to infpire. Perhaps no fpecies of poetry is more interefting than perfpicuous defcriptions of nature where the character of feeling ftill predominates. Of this kind are many defcriptive fketches in the works of Fenelon, Rouffeau, and Saint-Pierre, that only require the measured harmony of verfification to be the most finished and delightful poetry. Hence, too, that fragment of Madame de Genlis termed, The Shepherds of the Pyrenees, is eminently pleafing. The contrafted defcriptions of the mountains and the vallies do not imprefs us fo deeply as the delineation of the manners of the fhepherds and the exact accommodation of their fituations to their ages ;the youth approaching to puberty, ftationed on the mountain tops, the younger children among the verdant fpots of lefs difficult, accefs the old men at the foot of the mountains, and the men of mature age in the arable fields and vineyards. "De"fcriptive Poetry, fay Mercier, is nothing in comparison of fenti"mental. Ovid, at the beginning of "the fecond book of the Metamor"phofes, gives a pompous defcrip"tion of the palace of the fun, which "dazzles the eye of imagination; "but however magnificent or fpark"ling the poetical defcription of this If fentiment do not prevail in defcriptive poetry, instead of affe&ting us, it will rather affume the character of our own minds' during its perufal. I know a gentleman of a whimfical temper, who durft never venture upon a fecond perusal of Dyer's Grongar Hill, which he had at first read during a lingering fickness, under great depreffion of spirits. It often happens to thofe that are fond of voyages and travels, that from the feelings interefted by the ftory, a defcription which would not otherwife have attracted notice, makes a deep impreffion on the mind. I long recollected with transport the defcriptions of the rugged mountain forefts of Juan Fernandes, and the delightful vales of Tinian, in Anfon's voyage, which from my being previously interefted in the ftory feemed more beautiful. A later perufal however, diffipated the illufions of fancy, and fhowed that the picture of memory had much greater brilliance of co. louring, than the real defcription In the fpecies of defcription first mentioned, the general effect is frequently loft amid the enumeration of particular circumstances; but in this laft the defcription is apt to degenerate into the indefinite and the obfcure. A minute and elaborate enumeration of particulars is always confufed, except they be arranged in order according to accurate general principles; principles. This is always extremely difficult, for as George fays, in Di. derot's Julius, "there are things which one obferves in the twink"ling of an eye which we cannot ex. "plain in three ages and a half. For "inftance," proceeds the clown, "I "look at a tree, and inftantly the "fhape of all the branches and leaves ❝ enter into my head.-Well now, if "I wanted to write all this down in "a book what a pretty piece of bufinefs it would be. Firft, I must fay this branch resembled fuch a thing, " and the other branch, fuch another "thing-zounds! I fhould not have "finifhed my defcription in a hun "dred years, and after all it would "never convey the exact figure of "the tree." My readers will perceive that there is much truth in George's Philofophy: but it must be owned that defcriptive writers have more commonly run into the other extreme, and delineate the effect produced upon their own minds without connecting it fufficiently with particular circumstances, fo that it be. comes impoffible for us to enter into their feelings. The night fcenery of Offian, which is commonly excellent, fometimes labours under this defect. Even in local defcription, the writer may be more true to nature, when he does not imitate with exact precifion, but delineates a bolder and more strik ing outline than that which reality prefents. As we are never so powerfully affected by verbal description as by the prefence of the object, there is little danger of erring in refpect of too vivid and glowing colouring. Mr Knox in his Lucubrations, vol. III. p. 176. has accufed Gray of violating the coftume of England, in the firtt ftanza of his Elegy, by conduct. ing the ploughman home at the close of the curfew. With refpe& to fome didricts of England this description may not be literally exact, but even in that cafe, there would be no violation of poetical truth. The actual violation of truth is far too flender to ftrike us forcibly, and fancy eafily conjoins objects that are fcarcely separated But Gray needs not this apology. In Scotland, as well as in many diftricts of England, his account is literally exact, and I have often feen the ploughman when the found of the diftant clock was refounding from the city, loose his plough, throw himfelf carelessly across his horfes or plod flowly after them, while the fun was going down, the gray mift creeping flowly down the deep vallies, the crows winding homeward in black trains and the quails twittering among the dewy clover. [In a future Number I fhall offer Strictures on fome particular Defcriptive Poems.] L. TO THE EDITOR OF THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, cafion to mention any thing, that can affect the characters of indi'viduals, to be extremely cautious in SIR, THE 'HE following account of the late Mr Burns the poet's connection with Mr Miller of Dalfwinton, is not drawn up with the view of de-fo doing to hazard nothing on loose tracting from the merit of departed authority, but to be fure that their genius, but for the purpofe of doing information be well founded, and juftice to living worth, and defending their statement accurate. It is equally a character which does honour to the duty of those who may discover humanity, from the mifreprefentations any fuch miftakes to correct them, of ignorance. and undeceive the public, by placing the matter in its true light. It will not be denied, that it is highly incumbent on those who, in addreffing the public, may have oc These reflections were fuggefted to me, by reading in a "Memoir of "the |