A brighter blush o'erspreads the damfel's cheeks, And mildly thus the conquer'd ftripling speaks: "A double triumph, Delia, haft thou won, By Mars protected, and by Venus' son ; "The firft with conqueft crowns thy matchlefs art, "The second points those eyes at Daphnis' heart." She fmil'd; the nymphs and am'rous youths arise, And own, that beauty gain'd the nobler prize. Low in their cheft the mimick troops were lay'd, * And peaceful flept the fable hero's shade. A parody of the laft line in Pope's tranflation of the Iliad, And peaceful flept the mighty Hector's shade. ་ XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX) ESSAY I. On the poetry of the Eaftern nations. I AM not a little afraid, left the reader should form an unfavourable idea of the Eastern poetry, from the preceding fpecimens of it; and left, if the faults of the tranflator be imputed to the pieces themselves, I should have injured my cause, instead of supporting it: I will, therefore, endeavour in this essay to efface any impreffions, that may have been made to the disadvantage of the Asiatick poets; and in the course of my argument I will avoid, as much as I am able, a repetition of the remarks, that were made in a former treatise on the same subject, which I wrote a few years ago in a foreign language, for the use of an amiable Monarch, who admires true genius, in what country foever it is found: though in fome places, I fear, I shall be obliged to produce the fame observations, and to illuftrate them by the fame examples. It is certain (to fay no more) that the poets of Afsa have as much genius as ourselves; and, if it be shown not only that they have more leifure to improve it, but that they enjoy fome peculiar advantages over us, the natural conclufion, I think, will be, that their productions must be excellent in their kind: to fet this argument in a clear light, I fhall defcribe, as concifely as poffible, the manners of the Arabs, Perfians, Indians, and Turks, the four principal nations, that profess the religion of Maho met. Arabia, I mean that part of it, which we call the Happy, and which the Afiaticks know by the name of Yemen, seems to be the only country in the world, in which we can properly lay the scene of pastoral poetry; because no nation at this day can vie with the Arabians in the delightfulness of their climate, and the fimplicity of their manners. There is a valley, indeed, to the north of Indoftan, called Cashmere, which, according to an account written by a native of it, is a perfect garden, exceedingly fruitful, and watered by a thousand rivulets: but when its inhabitants were fubdued by the stratagem of a Mogul prince, they loft their happiness with their liberty, and Arabia retained its old title without any rival to dispute it. These are not the fancies of a poet: the beauties of Yemen are proved by the concurrent teftimony of all travellers, by the descriptions of it in all the writings of Afia, and by the nature and fituation of the country itself, which Fies between the eleventh and fifteenth degrees of northern Fatitude, under a ferene fky, and exposed to the most favourable |