diction, in the force and energy of his style, in the sublimity of the images, and in the boldness of the metaphorical language, Gray's poem resembles the productions of the Theban bard. In two circumstances, however, there exists a prominent difference between them. The odes of Pindar are distinguished for the frequency of the moral sentiments which he draws from his subject, in the shape of short and proverbial sayings; and which he delivers in a kind of axiomatical form. It is not necessary to say how distinct this is, from that species of moral pathos which I mentioned before as existing in the poetry of Gray. The ancient bard never seems to miss any opportunity afforded by his subject, of extracting some ethical precept from it; something in praise of the bounty of kings, of piety to the gods, or of justice to men. Lord Bacon has not missed the notice of this peculiarity. "Animos hominum, [Pindarus] sententiolâ aliquâ mirabili, veluti virgulâ divinâ percutit." This arose partly from the nature of the Grecian ode, which was considered as a composition of a religious nature, and which was framed in honour of gods and heroes, and whose duty it was to recommend piety and praise ;* * * Τῆς Μουσικῆς ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἀναστρεφόμενης ἐν οἷς τιμὴν τε τοῦ θειοῦ, διὰ ταύτης ἐποιοῦντο, καὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν ávôpшv éπaívovç. Plutarch. de Musica, p. 663, ed. Wyttenbach. "All the ideas (as Gray says in his notes to the republic of Plato) the Greeks had of the gods were borrowed from the poets." vol. ii. p. 427, ed. Mathias. ̓Αθανάτους μὲν πρῶτα θεοὺς, νόμω ὡς διάκεινται Pythag. Aur. Carm. and partly from the natural disposition of the poet's mind, which loved to indulge in a kind of severe or pensive morality, changing at times into enthusiastic animation, loftiness of sentiment, or beauty of description. We find these same features displayed in the choral odes of the Greek tragedy: and from a want of judgment in the imitation of the Greek tragedians, the plays that pass under the name of Seneca, are, in many parts, a heap of declamatory sentiments and moral aphorisms. As Horace, in his imitation of Pindar, often followed his example in the loose and defective connexions of the subject; so he by no means neglected to copy this peculiarity in his great predecessor. Though much of this moral reflection the poets undoubtedly borrowed from the Schools of Philosophy; yet it is * Hurd attributes the frequency of the moral sentences, in the writings of the ancient poets, to the influence of the Schools of Philosophy. See his notes on Horace, vol. i. p. 175. "As they had been more or less conversant, in the Academy, would be their relish of this moral mode, as is clearly seen in the case of Euripides, that Philosopher of the Stage, as the Athenians called him; and who is characterized by Quinctilian as "sententiis densior, et in iis quæ a sapientibus tradita sunt, pæne ipsis par." Hurd has well distinguished the peculiar moral character of the chorus, which, he says, was rather political and popular, than legal and philosophic." See his note, vol. i. p. 154. The most singular instance, in modern times, of a tragic fable also to be observed, that in the early poetry of most nations, before it has ceased to be the direct means of information as well as of pleasure, this sententiousness naturally takes place. Heinsius, in his Dissertation on Tragedy, where he is endeavouring to discover by internal evidence, the time in which the different plays were written, that all pass under the name of Seneca, says, "jam locorum major suppellex in Lucio Seneca; quæ res mire antiquitatem sapit." Every opportunity is seized to instruct, as well as to please. Poets are not only the first historians, but the first moralists. They not only relate the action, but they unfold its motive, and scrutinize its end. being founded on recent events, for a moral purpose, was that of the tragedy on the Death of Henry IVth, acted at Paris, a few months after that event took place, before his son and successor Louis XIIIth, where he is represented as a personage in the drama, made to complain, that study was prejudicial to him, that a book gave him the head-ache, and that a drum was the cure. Du Bos gives a singular reason why dramas, in which kings and queens are represented, cannot be taken from modern times; because the Sovereign Houses in our days, are so connected by intermarriage, that it would be impossible to exhibit upon the stage a prince who had reigned within an hundred years, in any neighbouring kingdom, in which the sovereign of the country would not find a relation. See Réflex. sur la Poësie, &c. vol. i. chap. 20. See A. Smith's Wealth of Nations, vol. ii. p. 352. Sir P. Sidney on Poetry. Jones, Præl. Poes. Asiat. p. 332. Louth. Præl. Academ. p. 37, 234. Robertson's View of the State of Europe, p. 88. Hume's Essays, vol. ii. p. 202. "Fuit hæc sapientia quondam, Publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis; Sic honor, et nomen divinis vatibus, atque Chaucer introduces many lines of this nature into the humour of his poems; and he distinguishes his friend and contemporary by the appellation of the Moral Gower."* Much of the Gnomic poetry of the Greek writers was composed by the elder poets; and Quinctilian mentions, that the elder Latin poets abounded with this sententious kind of writing. "Tragediæ scriptores, Accius, et Pacuvius, clarissimi gravitate sententiarum." + When philosophy and history took the province of instruction, poetry assumed, as its appropriate and primary purpose, the production of pleasure. At least, instruction became not a necessary part of the province of poetry and only used as a means of pleasure, as it * Gower and Chaucer may not unaptly be called the Hesiod and Homer of English poetry. If we take from Hesiod all that does not belong to him, we should then bring the genius of the two poets nearly on an equality. + See Quinctilian, Inst. Orat. lib. x. cap. 1. And Athenæus, lib. xv. cap. 14. And consult Sir W. Temple's Observations on Poetry. The object of the philosopher is to inform and enlighten mankind: that of the orator, to acquire an ascendant over the will of others, by bending to his own purposes their judgment, their imaginations, and their passions: but the primary and the distinguishing aim of the poet, is to please ; and the principal resource which he possesses for that pur was conveyed with peculiar attraction; with harmony of style, and beauty of description. In this respect, then, it was judicious in the English poet, when he formed his ode after the Pindaric model, not to follow that peculiarity, the introduction of which depended upon the age in which the Grecian bard lived; as well as upon his own particular habits of thought, and on the genius and disposition of the people among whom he wrote; I observe, that the learned editor of the Heraclidæ of Euripides,* has taken notice of this peculiarity in the Greek drama, in a note which he has written on the speech of Macaria (ver. 501). It abounds with moral re pose, is by addressing the imagination. D. Stewart's Elem. of the Philos. of the Human Mind, 8vo, p. 497. On the idea that utility and instruction are the end of poetry, and not pleasure; the reader is referred to a note in Mr. Twining's Aristotle, p. 561. * So remarkable was Euripides for the frequency and the fulness of his moral sentiments, that it was said Socrates assisted him with reflections and observations, drawn from his knowledge of human nature. Alluding to this, Callias, in the comedy called the IIɛonrai, makes some one say to Euripides, Ηδη σὺ σεμνῆ, καὶ φρονεῖς οὕτω μέγα. To which he answers, Εξεστι γὰρ μοι. Σωκράτης γὰρ αἴτιος. And see Ælian. Var. Hist. lib. ii. cap. 13. See Nares's Essays, vol. ii. p. 202, on the Moral Sentences of Euripides, he considers them as the maxims of Philosophers, published on the stage in a popular form. On the Sententia of Sophocles, consult Martini Var. Lect. p. 115. VOL. II. h |