favoured inquirers good advice; with which the poem concludes. That this ingenious writer fhould be fond of allegory is not furprising, fince metaphors are the life and foul of poetry 3 and allegory is nothing more than a continued metaphor :but, in the felection of allegorical characters, fome judgment may be deemed neceffary, and yet more in fupporting those characters with propriety, through a poem of any confiderable length. Human paffions have been frequently and happily perfonified by allegorical writers, and fometimes even abstract ideas have been effayed with fuccefs: but thefe ideas, thus perfonified, were eafily comprehended, and capable of a clear and accurate definition. Now it happens rather unfortunately for the prefent author, that there is, perhaps, no word in the English language of more vague and undetermined meaning than genius; and good writers have afferted that it has never yet been properly defined. In analizing the human mind, philofophers generally affign the province of comparing ideas, and drawing conclufions from fuch comparisons, to judgment, and the power of combining ideas to imagination; and that faculty of creation, which is the peculiar attribute of genius, is faid to be nothing more than a facility of forming new and unexpected combinations. If this be the cafe, the marriage of Genius with Fancy, or Imagination, almoft involves in it an abfurdity fomething like Crambo's Logical Incest (Vide Martinus Scriblerus). Had our author changed the fex of Genius, and married her to Judgment, he might have promised himself good poets, painters, and musicians, without the trouble of fending his heroes and heroines on long adventures, and obliging them to confult the book of Fate. We may be told, however, in answer to thefe obfervations, that it is not to be expected that poets fhould attend to metaphyfical fubtleties and logical diftinctions. We fhall therefore difmifs the fubject, and attend to Mr. B.'s powers of verfification, and his other qualifications as a poet. We fhall first present our readers with the defcription here given of FANCY and of GENIUS: • When Time was young, undifciplin'd mankind, E'er letters yet their manners had refin'd, In wilds embofom'd and with woods o'ergrown, Το To reach that cell a fecret paffage wound, To note what shapes the floating clouds could give; Or liften'd to the bafhful cuckoo's note; Or pleas'd would fee the ftream meand'ring glide, And on the ground to catch each found would lay*, To diftant climes on wings of thought would stray, } REV. MARCH, 1795. *For lie. Gay } Gay were her steps, when earth became her care; Swift as the meffage of electric fire. Wisdom was his; yet his ambitious mind, Difdain'd by vulgar laws to be confin'd. And what, perhaps, much more might please the fair, Soon to the nymph he made his passion known; Not long when both were pleas'd, nor heeded law, These lines are not deftitute of harmony, although they may not poffefs all that vigour of thought, and ftrength of expreffion, which are deemed eflential to the perfection of poetry. The author certainly has talents for defcription: but he does not appear to have fufficiently confidered that the greatest masters, in that art, have diftinguifhed themselves by the selection of a few ftriking and characteristical properties in the object or perfon defcribed; together with fuch circumftances as might throw light on the general fubject, and render it the more interefting. In making FANCY figure to herself pictures in the fire, trace refemblances in the clouds, gaze on the moon shining with pale luftre on the trembling leaves, watch the reflection of the fun-beams in the water, and liften to the roar of torrents, -the -the poet has, no doubt, chofen fuch occupations for her as are appropriate to her character: but does not his judgment defert him when he places her in a chariot drawn by peacocks, and hurries her through the air with the fury of a tempeft? In a word, it appears that Mr. B., like many other writers, dazzled by the fplendour of their own imagination, feems defirous of faying every thing that occurs on the fubject, without always paying the ftricteft attention to propriety. As we have already fhewn that the poet had formed to himfelf a confused idea of Genius, the greatest accuracy cannot be expected in his numbers, nor in his rhymes: but we fhall only detain our readers while we take notice of one defective rhyme, which is, indeed, a tranfgreffion, in this refpect, of remarkable magnitude: High on a mountain's top he fat and faw, } A poet, we must acknowlege, is fometimes led into an error of this fort when he meets with what Dr. Johnson calls a stubborn word, and does not chufe to give up a favourite line :but in the present inftance Mr. B. has not this excuse; for, in the above triplet, the fenfe would have been complete without the last line. We have obferved, in reading thefe Poems, feveral inftances of o being used as a rhime to a; as if there were no diftinction in the pronunciation of these two vowels. As the reader may think a farther fpecimen requifite, in order to do full juftice to this writer, we will tranfcribe the author's defcriptions of Homer, Pindar, and Horace, contrafted with Mr. Pope's characters of the fame great poets, in his TEMPLE of FAME: by which the comparative merit of Mr. B., as a poet, may be better afcertained than by any remarks which at prefent occur to us. Mr. BIDLAKE. Confpicuous one, and bright above the reft, Blind as he was, the Mufes by his fide, Whisper'd kind words, and deign'd his fteps to guide. Grand was his post, and as he boldly trod, With smiles affenting heaven was seen to nod. Before his fteps created forms arofe, Arms frown'd on arms, and marshal'd foes on foes. The battle rag'd; and o'er the fandy plain, An Hero's chariot dragg'd an hero flain. ᎢᏂ The Gods contending fill the thund'ring fkies; cr Mr. POPE. High on the first, the mighty Homer fhone; Bold was the work, and prov'd the master's fire. BIDLAKE. High on a mountain's top, a winged horfe, Bore one bright form, and panted for the course. Then forth he rufh'd, with wild impetuous flight, And vanish'd melting in the folar light.' POPE. Four fwans fuflain a car of filver bright, With heads advanc'd, and pinions ftretch'd for flight B:DLAKE. Beneath, where he who rul'd the winged horfe, POPE. |