conveyed, and that affistance which the memory borrows from rhyme, as it was probably the original cause of it, gives its usefulness and propriety even there.

AFTER thefe apologies for the defcriptive turn of the following odes, fomething remains to be faid on the origin and ufe of allegory in poetical compofition.

By this we are not to understand the trope in the 、 fchools, which is defined aliud verbis, aliud fenfu oftendere, and of which Quintilian fays, Ufus eft, ut triftia dicamus melioribus verbis, aut bonæ rei gratia quædam contrariis fignificemus, etc. It is not the verbal, but the fentimental allegory, not allegorical expreffion (which, indeed, might come under the term of metaphor) but allegorical imagery, that is here in question.

WHEN We endeavour to trace this fpecies of figurative sentiment to its origin, we find it coeval with literature itself. 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 hiero. glyphical to literal expreffion, it is not to be wonder. ed if the custom of expreffing ideas by perfonal ima

ges, which had fo long prevailed, should still retain its influence on the mind, though the use of letters had rendered the practical application of it fuperfluous. Thofe who had been accustomed to exprefs ftrength by the image of an elephant, fwiftness by that of a panther, and courage by that of a lion, would make no fcruple of fubftituting, in letters, the fymbols for the ideas they had been used to reprefent.

HERE we plainly fee the origin of allegorical expreffion, that it arose from the ashes of hieroglyphics; and if to the fame caufe we should refer that figurative boldness of style and imagery which distinguish the oriental writings, we fhall, perhaps, conclude more justly, than if we should impute it to the fuperior grandeur of the eastern genius.

FROM the fame fource with the verbal, we are to derive the fentimental 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 scene.

The latter most peculiarly comes under the denomination of allegorical imagery; and in this species of allegory we include the imperfonation of paffions, affections, virtues and vices, etc. on account of which, principally, the following odes were properly termed by their author, allegorical.

WITH refpect to the utility of this figurative writing, the fame arguments, that have been advanced in favour of descriptive poetry, will be of weight likewife here. It is, indeed from imperfonation, or, as it is commonly termed perfonification, that poetical description borrows its chief powers and graces. Without the aid of this, moral and intellectual painting would be flat and unanimated, and even the fcenery of material objects would be dull without the introduction of fictitious life.

THESE obfervations will be moft effectually illustrated by the sublime and beautiful odes that occafioned them: in thofe 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.

ODE TO PIT Y.

Y Pella's Bard, a magic name,

BY By all the griefs his thought could frame,

Receive my humble rite:
Long, Pity, let the nations view
Thy sky-worn robes of tenderest blue,
And eyes of dewy light!

The propriety of invoking Pity through the mediation of Euripides is obvious.-That admirable poet had the keys of all the tender paffions, and, therefor, 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 fo closely as the last mentioned poet has fometimes done, and particularly in the opening of Samfon-Agonistes, which is an evident imitation of the following paffage in the DOINIZZAI.

Η δε παροιθε, θυγατερ, ὡς τυφλῷ ποδι
Οφθαλμος ει συ, ναυβαταισιν αςρον ὡς,
Δευρ εις το λευρον πεδον ιχνος τιθείσ' εμον,
Προβαινε.----...

Act III. Sc. I.

The eyes of dewy light" is one of the happiest ftrokes of imagination, and may be ranked among thofe expreffions which

- give us back the image of the mind.

Wild ARUN too has heard thy ftrains,
And Echo, 'midst thy native plains,
Been footh'd, with Pity's lute.

There first the wren thy myrtles fhed
On gentleft OTWAY's infant head.-

Suffex, in which country the Arun is a small river, had the honour of giving birth to OTWAY as well as to COLLINS. Both these poets became the objects of that pity by which their writings are distinguished. There was a fimilitude in their genius and in their fufferings. There was a resemblance in the misfortunes and in the diffipation of their lives; and the circumftances of their death cannot be remembered without pain.

THE thought of painting in the temple of Pity the history of human misfortunes, and of drawing the fcenes from the tragic mufe, is very happy, and in every respect worthy the imagination of COLLINS.