nishes. An ingenious critic has inftanced May thy brimmed waves for this He adds May thy billows roll afhore And here and there thy banks along which have no propriety when applied to ral fong entitled Dowfabel, describes his fhepherdess in the following comparisons. Her features all as fresh above, Her fkin as foft as Lemfter wool, He goes on in the story This mayden in a morn betime The honey-fuckle, the harlocke, To deck her summer hall. It is impoffible for defcription to be more lively, or more confiftently proper. THAT there is still room for novelty in this walk has lately been agreeably shown in the pastorals of Mr. Smith, the landscape painter, which, however unequal and deficient in harmony and correctness, have infinitely more merit than Pope's melodious echoes of echo. Mr. Smith's pieces will alfo illuftrate my former remark, that the manners and fentiments of our rural vulgar cannot be rendered pleafing fubjects for poetry; for where he paints them most naturally they are leaft agreeable. T THIS then appears to be the rule of taste for modern paftoral writers—to be general in character and fentiment, but particular in description. The poetical shepherd and fhepherdess are characters of great uniformity; for, the originals having been long extinct, all have copied after the fame models. The paffion of love is the eternal fource of paftoral fentiment, and however various it may be in its nature, all its changes and intricacies muft surely be at length explored, after it has in fo many ages and countries exercised the utmoft abilities of human genius. NOTHING therefore remains to produce novelty, but a variation of circumstances, whether relating to the fubjects of the paffion, or the accompanying scenery. The pastoral fong formed upon the ballad model, is capable of being made the most pleafing piece of the paftoral kind. The fimplicity of language gives it an air of nature and reality, though the fictitious character be entirely kept up; and throwing the fubject into a little tale, gives an opportunity of novelty in description from the variety of incidents. When the story has a tender and mournful turn, the ballad fimplicity has a peculiarly happy ef fect. Perhaps the English alone, of all the moderns, have known how to unite the moft perfect fimplicity with real elegance and poetical expreffion; and it is to be hoped we shall never want taste to relish the beauties of this kind that we are poffeffed of. The little collection of ballads and pastoral songs here offered, contains fome of the sweetest flowers of English poetry. BAL |