it coeval with literature itfelf. It is generally agreed that the most ancient productions are poetical, and it is certain that the most ancient poems abound with allegorical imagery. IF, then, it be allowed that the first literary productions were poetical, we shall have little or no difficulty in discovering the origin of allegory. AT the birth of letters, in the transition from, hieroglyphical to literal expreffion, it is not to be wondered if the custom of expreffing ideas by perfonal images, which had so long prevailed, fhould ftill retain its influence on the mind, though the ufe of letters had ren-. dered the practical application of it fuperfluqus. Those who had been accustomed to ex« prefs ftrength by the image of an elephant, fwiftnefs by that of a panther, and courage by that that of a lion, would make no fcruple of fubtituting, in letters, the symbols for the ideas they had been used to represent. HERE we plainly fee the origin of allegorical expreffion, that it arose from the ashes of hieroglyphics; and if to the fame cause we should refer that figurative boldness of ftyle and imagery which distinguish the oriental writings, we fhall, perhaps, conclude more justly, than if we should impute it to the fuperior grandeur of eastern genius. FROM the fame fource with the verbal, we are to derive the sentimental allegory, which is nothing more than a continuation of the metaphorical or fymbolical expreffion of the feveral agents in an action, or the different objects in a fcene. THE THE latter moft peculiarly comes under the denomination of allegorical imagery; and in this species of allegory we include the imperfonation of paffions, affections, virtues and vices, &c. on account of which, principally, the following odes were properly termed by their author, allegorical. WITH respect to the utility of this figurative writing, the fame arguments that have been advanced in favour of defcriptive poetry, will be of weight likewife here. It is, in deed, from impersonation, or, as it is commonly termed, perfonification, that poetical defcription borrows its chief powers and graces. Without the aid of this, moral and intellectual painting would be flat and unanimated, and even the scenery of material objects would be dull without the introduction of fictitious THESE obfervations will be moft effectu ally illuftrated by the fublime and beautiful odes that occafioned them; in those it will appear how happily this allegorical painting may be executed by the genuine powers of poetical genius, and they will not fail to prove its force and utility by paffing through the imagination to the heart. B ODE TO PITY. Y Pella's Bard, a magic name, By all the griefs his thought could frame, Receive my humble rite: Long, Pity, let the nations view Thy fky-worn robes of tendereft blue, The propriety of invoking Pity through the mediation of Euripides is obvious.-That admirable poet had the keys of all the tender paffions, and, therefore, could not but stand in the highest esteem with a writer of Mr. COLLINS's fenfibility.-He did, indeed, admire him as much as MILTON profeffedly did, and probably for the fame reafons; but we do not find that he has copied him so closely as the laft mentioned poet has fometimes done, |