is gratified, but the ear is disappointed; nor is this. merely the effect of custom. So long as our verse is constructed chiefly with Iambics, particularly in the close of the line, the absence of rhyme will appear a defect; but Lyric measures might be formed composed of dactyls and anapæsts, which would probably sustain themselves without this ornament, by some thought so Gothic; the only objection to this, and it is to be feared an insuperable one, is, that our language does not naturally run into these measures, and the genius of a language cannot be forced. Those who think no practice can have the stamp of taste which has not the sanction of the ancients, will continue to inveigh against rhyme; writers, studious of novelty, will, from time to time, make attempts to do without it; but we may venture to pronounce it far from probable, that the mode in which the great masters of English versification, from POPE to DARWIN, have charmed the readers of successive generations, should be discovered to the offspring of tasteless caprice, or the

blind compliance with unmeaning custom. It is moreover a fact, which those who have tried it will bear witness to, that the necessity of labouring the line, and turning the expressions frequently in the mind, is favorable to excellence; and that, whatever might be presumed to the contrary, a thought is oftener condensed than dilated by the necessity of putting it into rhyme. Our common blank verse is so extremely easy to compose, that it tempts a young author to negligence. The art of versification is as essential to the nature of Poetry as beauty of thought; and however difficult it may be to bind in rhyme the unwilling phrase, the Poet should remember that he cannot free himself from a chain, but by abandoning an ornament.

TO PEACE. In reading the Author before us, our attention cannot but be attracted by the frequent recurrence of those subjects which indicate a gentleness of temper, and a quick sensibility to the distresses of his fellow men. COLLINS did not use the liberal breath of Poetry to fan those flames

which consume and destroy mankind; Peace, Mercy, Pity, these are the themes he delights to dress and adorn with all his pomp of imagery; and his gentle spirit seems to have been wounded with the contemplation of the miseries of his race. The image of

Peace escaping to the skies, and just saving her hair from the furious grasp of her enemy, is appropriate

"Imminet, et crinem sparsum cervicibus adflat.”

This Ode was probably written during the war of the

Austrian succession..

THE MANNERS.

That COLLINS was more

fond of abstract and metaphysical ideas than of the busy haunts of common life, his works sufficiently evince. It must, therefore, have been in some moment of disgust against the usual train of his ideas, that he professes himself desirous to abandon the philosophic porch for the walks of life; and speculation, for wit and humour. We may reason

C

ably conclude, however, that with wit and humour as well as with speculation, his acquaintance was formed through books; and that when he speaks of studying the Manners, he had only laid down his Plato to take up Gil Blas. The scintillations of wit are ingeniously alluded to by,

"The jewels in his crisped hair,

placed each other's beams to share.”

The remark that the name of humour is known only to Britain's favoured isle, is calculated to mislead; since surely no one will pretend that the thing is peculiar to our own country; and it is of little importance that the terms do not exactly correspond in different languages. LE SAGE should not have been characterized by the story of Blanche, which, though beautiful, is not in his peculiar style of excellence, and has more to do with the high passions than with Manners. Indeed the subject isn ot particularly proper for an Ode, and, though not devoid of merit, this is by no means one of his most striking pieces.

THE PASSIONS. The connection of Music with Poetry, and their united power over the Passions, has been a favorite theme of authors. DRYDEN, who had a musical ear, and POPE who had none, have both written Odes for St. Cecilia's day. To try his strength with these great masters, was an exertion worthy of the ambition, and not above the powers of COLLINS. This Ode to the Passions may be considered as the happiest production of his pen.

His art is the more to be admired, as he has not, like his predecessors, taken advantage of a story

for the basis of his piece; but has

on an allegorical fiction of his own.

raised it solely

The Passions,

who had often crowded round the cell of Music, while she sung in early Greece, being once upon a time more than usually affected, and raised into a kind of ecstacy, snatched her instrument which hung upon the surrounding myrtles, and produced, each of them, a strain suitable to the peculiar expres