THE MANNERS. AN ODE.

ROM the fubject and fentiments of this

FRO

ode, it seems not improbable that the author wrote it about the time when he left the Univerfity; when weary with the pursuit of academical ftudies, he no longer confined himself to the fearch of theoretical knowledge, but commenced the scholar of humanity, to ftudy nature in her works, and man in fociety.

THE following farewell to fcience exhibits a very just as well as ftriking picture; for however exalted in theory the platonic doctrines may appear, it is certain that Platonism and Pyrrhonism are nearly allied :

Farewell the porch, whose roof is seen
Arch'd with th' enlivening olive's green:

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Where

Where Science, prank'd in tiffued veft,
By Reason, Pride, and Fancy dreft,
Comes like a bride, fo trim array'd,
To wed with Doubt in Plato's fhade!

When the mind goes in pursuit of vifionary fyftems, it is not far from the regions of doubt; and the greater its capacity to think abstractedly, to reason and refine, the more it will be exposed to and bewildered in uncertainty. From an enthufiaftic warmth of temper, indeed, we may for a while be encouraged to perfist in some favourite doctrine, or to adhere to fome adopted fyftem; but when that enthufiafm, which is founded on the vivacity of the paffions, gradually cools and dies away with them, the opinions it fupported drop from us, and we are thrown upon the inhofpitable shore of doubt.—A strik

ing

ing proof of the neceffity of fome moral ru'e of wisdom and virtue, and some system of happiness established by unerring knowledge and unlimited power.

In the poet's addrefs to Humour in this ode, there is one image of fingular beauty and propriety. The ornaments in the hair of wit are of such a nature, and difpofed in fuch a manner, as to be perfectly fymbolical and characteristic:

Me too amidst thy band admit,
There, where the young-ey'd, healthful
Wit,

(Whofe jewels in his crisped hair
Are plac'd each other's beams to fhare,
Whom no delights from thee divide)
In laughter loos'd attends thy fide.

Nothing could be more expreffive of wit, which confifts in a happy collifion of comparative

parative and relative images, than this reciprocal reflection of light from the disposition of the jewels.

O Humour, thou whose name is known
To Britain's favour'd ifle alone!

The author could only mean to apply this to the time when he wrote, fince other nations had produced works of great humour as he himself acknowledges afterwards.

By old Miletus &c.

By all you taught the Tufcan maids &c.

The Milefian and Tuscan romances were by no means diftinguished for humour, but as they were the models of that fpecies of writing in which humour was afterwards employed, they are, probably for that reason only, mentioned here.

THE PASSIONS.

AN ODE FOR MUSIC.

F the mufic, which was compofed for this

IF

ode, had equal merit with the ode itself, it must have been the most excellent performance of the kind, in which poetry and mufic have, in modern times, united. Other pieces of the fame nature have derived their greatest reputation from the perfection of the mufic that accompanied them, having in themselves little more merit than that of an ordinary ballad: but in this we have the whole foul and power of poetry-Expreffion that, even without the aid of mufic, ftrikes to the heart; and imagery of power enough to transport the attention without the forceful alliance of cor

refpond

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