Printed for T. Becket and P. A. DE HONDT, at MDCCLXV.. CO N T E N T S. General Observations on the Oriental Eclogues, III. 92 93 General Observations on the Odes descriptive and Observations on the Ode to Pity, -Ode on the poetical Character, 113 - Ode, written in the Year 1746 115 Ode, to a Lady, on the Death of Colonel Charles Ross in the Action of Fon- The Passions. An Ode for Music, An Epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer, MEMOIRS of the AUTHOR. HE enthusiasm of poetry, like that of reli. gion, has frequently a powerful influence on the conduct of life, and either throws it into the retreat of uniform obscurity, or marks it with irregularities that lead to misery and disquiet. The gifts of imagination bring the heaviest talk upon the vigilance of reason; and to bear those faculties with unerring rectitude, or invariable propriety, requires a degree of firmness and of cool attention which doth not always attend the higher gifts of the mind. Yet, difficult as nature herself seems to have rendered the task of regularity to genius, it is the supreme consolation of dulnefs and folly, to point with gothic triumph to these excesses, which are the overflowings of faculties they never enjoyed. Perfectly unconscious that they are indebted to their stupidity for the consistency of their conduct, they plume themselves on an imaginary virtue, which has its origin in what is really their disgrace.--Let fuch, if such dare approach the shrine of COLLINS, withdraw to a respectful distance, and, should they A |