LETTER XIII.

SOMERVILLE'S poem of "The Chase" is another production in blank verse which, I think, will repay your perusal. The subject, indeed, cannot be supposed highly interesting to a young lady, whose occupations and amusements have been properly feminine but you may feel a curiosity to be informed what those delights are, which prove so captivating to our rougher sex; and may receive pleasure from the new views of nature opened by the scenes here represented. Although this work assumes the didactic form, and the poet speaks of his "instructive song," yet I regard it as almost purely descriptive; for it cannot be supposed that our sportsmen would deign to learn their art from a versifier, and the ordinary reader of poetry has no occasion for instruction on these points. I observe,

however, that a prose "Essay on Hunting," written by an able practitioner, makes large quotations from Somerville; which I consider as a valuable testimony to his accuracy in description.

You will probably pass lightly over the directions concerning the discipline of the kennel, and dwell chiefly upon the pictures of the different kinds of chase. These are wrought with a spirit which indicates them to be copied from reality, and by one who felt all the enthusiastic ardour which these pastimes are calculated to inspire. If you compare them with the corresponding draughts in Thomson's Seasons, you will perceive the difference between a cold reflecting spectator, and an impassioned actor. Perhaps, however, you will be most entertained with the scene he has drawn from the description, of travellers only, assisted by his imagination; I mean his splendid view of a chase conducted with all the parade of oriental magnificence, and of which the objects are some of the noblest of qua

drupeds. He has wrought this with much poetical skill, and it forms a striking variety in the piece. Indeed, there would be danger of his throwing his English pictures quite into the shade, did not the minute and animated touches of the latter compensate for their want of grandeur. In his stag hunt he has decorated the canvas with the ladies of the court, who at that time were accustomed to partake in this diversion; and though Thomson has represented the exercise of the chase as inconsistent with feminine softness, yet it would be a fastidious delicacy not to admire

Their garments loosely waving in the wind,
And all the flush of beauty in their cheek.

The rapture with which this poet has repeatedly described the music of the chase will probably give you a longing to hear such heart-cheering melody; but much of its effect is owing to association, and would be lost upon one who did not follow it over hedge and ditch. I question, however,

whether the most elaborate strains of modern music could produce an effect so animating as that represented in the following lines:

......winged zephyrs waft the floating joy
Thro' all the regions near: afflictive birch
No more the school-boy dreads: his prison broke,
Scamp'ring he flies, nor heeds his master's call:
The weary traveller forgets his road,

And climbs th' adjacent hill: the ploughman leaves
Th' unfinish'd furrow; nor his bleating flocks
Are now the shepherd's joy: men, boys, and girls
Desert th' unpeopled village; and wild crowds
Spread o'er the plain, by the sweet phrensy seiz'd.

These are feats worthy of Orpheus himself, and are related with a spirit congenial to the subject. The diction of Somerville is well suited to the topics which he treats. It is lively and natural, and free from the stiffness usually accompanying blank verse. His versification possesses the correctness and variety which denote a practised ear.

There remains among the blank verse poems a very celebrated work, of a kind totally different from those which we have

ry terms.

hitherto considered, the "Night Thoughts" of Dr. Young. The originality and high reputation of this performance undoubtedly entitle it to the notice of all students of English poetry: yet I feel some hesitation in speaking of it to you in recommendatoAgainst any bad effect it might have upon your literary taste, I think you are sufficiently fortified by the number of excellent productions which have been submitted to your perusal; but I cannot be so secure with respect to its influence upon your sentiments in more important points. "What! (it will be said) can you doubt to put into the hands of a female pupil the admired work of the pious and seraphic Young?" A short view of the spirit in which he wrote it, and the system upon which it is formed, will explain my doubts.

The writer was a man of warm feelings, ambitious both of fame and advancement. He set out in life upon an eager pursuit of what is chiefly valued by men of the world;