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OBSERVATIONS

ΟΝ ΤΗΕ

DE S

DESCRIPTIVE AND ALLEGORICAL,

I 4

OBSERVATIONS, &c.

HE genius of Collins was capable of

THE

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, fufceptible of the fineft feelings of tenderness and humanity, but, above all, carried away by that high enthusiasm, 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 description.

IN

IN confequence of these powers, but, more particularly, in confideration of the last, he chofe fuch fubjects for his lyric effays as were moft 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 new attributes on images or objects already 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.

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