herdefs, and finds in her embraces that genuine felicity which unperverted nature alone can beftow. The most natural and beautiful parts of this eclogue are those where the fair fultana refers with fo much pleasure to her paftoral amusements, and those scenes of happy innocence in which she had paffed her early years; partiticularly when, upon her first departure,

"Oft as she went, fhe backward turn'd her view, And bade that crook and bleating flock adieu." This picture of amiable fimplicity reminds one of that paffage, where Proferpine, when carried off by Pluto, regrets the loss of the flowers she has been gathering. "Collecti flores tunicis cecidere remiffis :

Tantaque fimplicitas puerilibus adfuit annis,
Hæc quoque virgineum movit jactura dolorem."

ECLOGUE

IV.

THE beautiful, but unfortunate country, where the scene of this pathetic is laid, had been recently torn in pieces by the depredations of its favage neighbours, when Mr. Collins fo affectedly defcribed its misfortunes. This ingenious man had not only a pencil to pourtray, but a heart to feel for the miseries of mankind, and it is with the utmost tenderness and humanity he enters into the narrative of Circaffia's ruin, while he realizes the scene, and brings the present drama before us. Of every circumstance that could poffibly contribute to the tender effect this pastoral was designed to produce, the poet has availed himself with the utmost

art and addrefs. Thus he prepares the heart to pity the diftreffes of Circaffia, by reprefenting it as the scene of the happieft love.

"In fair Circaffia, where, to love inclin'd,

Each fwain was bleft, for every maid was kind." To give the circumftances of the dialogue a more affecting folemnity, he makes the time midnight, and defcribes the two fhepherds in the very act of flight from the deftruction that fwept over their country:

"Sad o'er the dews, two brother fhepherds fled, Where wildering fear and defperate forrow led:" There is a beauty and propriety in the epithet wildering, which ftrikes us more forcibly, the more we confider it.

The opening of the dialogue is equally happy, natural, and unaffected; when one of the fhepherds, weary and overcome with the fatigue of flight, calls upon his companion to review the length of way they had paffed. This is, certainly, painting from nature, and the thoughts, however obvious, or deftitute of refinement, are perfectly in character. But, as the closest pursuit of nature is the fureft way to excellence in general, and to fublimity in particular, in poetical defcription, so we find that this fimple suggestion of the shepherd is not unattended with magnificence. There is grandeur and variety in the landskip he describes :

"And first review that long-extended plain,

And yon
wide groves, already past with pain!
Yon ragged cliff, whofe dangerous path we try'd!
And last this lofty mountain's weary fide 1"

There

There is, in imitative harmony, an act of expreffing a flow and difficult movement by adding to the ufual number of paufes in a verfe. This is obfervable in the line that defcribes the afcent of the mountain :

And laft || this lofty mountain's || weary fide ||| Here we find the number of paufes, or musical bars, which, in an heroic verfe, is commonly two, increased to three.

The liquid melody, and the numerous sweetness of expreffion in the following defcriptive lines is almost inimitably beautiful :

"Sweet to the fight is Zabran's flowery plain, And once by nymphs and shepherds lov'd in vain! No more the virgins fhall delight to rove By Sargis' banks, or Irwan's fhady grove On Tarkie's mountain catch the cooling gale, Or breathe the fweets of Aly's flowery vale." Nevertheless in this delightful landskip there is an obvious fault there is no diftinction between the plain of Zabran, and the vale of Aly; they are both flowery, and confequently undiverfified. This could not proceed from the poet's want of judgement, but from inattention it had not occurred to him that he had employed the epithet flowery twice within fo fhort a compafs; an oversight which those who are accuftomed to poetical, or, indeed, to any other species of compofition, know to be very poffible.

Nothing can be more beautifully conceived, or more pathetically expreffed, than the fhepherd's apprehenfions

for

for his fair country-women, exposed to the ravages the invaders.

“ In vain Circaffia boasts her spicy groves, For ever fam'd for pure and happy loves: In vain the boafts her fairest of the fair,

of

Their eyes' blue languish, and their golden hair! Thofe eyes in tears their fruitless grief shall send; Those hairs the Tartar's cruel hand shall rend." There is, certainly, fome very powerful charm in the liquid melody of founds. The editor of these poems could never read, or hear the following verfe repeated, without a degree of pleasure otherwise entirely unaccountable :

"Their eyes' blue languifh, and their golden hair.” Such are the Oriental Eclogues, which we leave with the fame kind of anxious pleasure, we feel upon a temporary parting with a beloved friend.

OBSERVATIONS

ON THE

O D E S,

DESCRIPTIVE AND ALLEGORICAL.

T

HE genius of Collins was capable of every degree of excellence in lyric poetry, and perfectly qualified for that high province of the Mufe. Poffeffed of a

native ear for all the varieties of harmony and modulation, susceptible of the finest feelings of tenderness and humanity, but, above all, carried away by that high enthufiafm, which gives to imagination its ftrongest colouring, he was, at once, capable of foothing the ear with the melody of his numbers, of influencing the paffions by the force of his pathos, and of gratifying the fancy by the luxury of his defcription.

In confequence of these powers, but, more particularly, in confideration of the last, he chose such subjects for his lyric effays as were most favourable for the indulgence of defcription and allegory; where he could exercise his powers in moral and perfonal painting; where he could exert his invention in conferring attributes on images or objects already new known, and defcribed by a determinate number of characteristics; where he might give an uncommon eclat to his figures, by placing them in happier attitudes, or in more advantageous lights, and introduce new forms from the moral and intellectual world into the fociety of imperfonated beings.

Such, no doubt, were the privileges which the poet expected, and fuch were the advantages he derived from the descriptive and allegorical nature of his themes.

It seems to have been the whole industry of our author (and it is, at the fame time, almost all the claim to moral excellence his writings can boaft) to promote the influence of the focial virtues, by painting them in the fairest and happiest lights.

"Melior fieri tuendo,"

would