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Archdeacon Blackburne, father of Jane Disney, author of that judicious performance the Confessional, a work, in its day, of great celebrity; and for acuteness, solidity, and importance, still entitled to the most serious attention: the subject being a full and free inquiry into the right and utility, edification and success, of establishing systematical confessions of faith and doctrine in protestant churches.

Future satirists, if men of sagacity, as all satirists should be, may read to advantage something about a goose when concealed, and a goose when discovered, in an old English satire, entitled, The Ship of Fools, published by Alexander Barclay, in 1509. To this they may add a Latin Epigram by Bourne, or I forget whom, on “Ars est celare artem:” they may then solve this problem, “How a dull poet may pass for a great wit.”

Dunciad. B. 4.

Author of an art of poetry, well thumbed over by schoolboys.

Juv. Sat. 7. 27.

I speak here in conformity to the doctrine of Lucretius. See Lucretius De Rerum Natura, lib. 1. v. 10. &c.

Anatomy and its attendant physiognomy were well studied by the ancients as well as by the moderns. Of physiognomy, concerning which the enthusiastic Lavater has written so freely, Aristotle has written an ingenious treatise. See his Φυσιωγνωμικα. Baptista Porta also has taken up the subject after Aristotle, and enlarged on his principles, as they relate to men and brutes.

Fresnoy's de Re Graphica.

The long neglect in which the Paradise Lost lay, and the circumstances that brought it into general repute, are known to all the the readers of Milton, and the Spectator. Milton printed three editions of his work, and for each received but five pounds, with the condition of receiving five pounds more, when fifteen hundred copies were sold. His widow, at length, sold the whole copy-right for eight pounds. See his Life by Johnson.

In opposition to what is said at the end of Poet's Fate.

Those who recollect, that the first writers were the poets, and know the great qualities ascribed to poetry by the ancients, more particularly Plato, Aristotle, and Longinus, cannot think my account of poetry extravagant. Modern critics have not been behindhand with the ancient. There is no end of what Rapin says: En Effet la poesie est de tous les arts la plus parfait: car la perfection des autres arts est bornée: celle de la poesie, ne l'est point: peur y reussir il faut presque tout scavoir. Reflexions sure la poetique.

This was literally true of one worthy person, who wrote poetry and was a man of learning. In the Account of a society for the Establishment of a literary Fund, may be read as follows:

“Floyer Sydenham, the well-known translator of Plato, one of the most useful, if not of the most competent, Greek scholars of his age, a man revered for his knowledge, and beloved for the candour of his temper, and the gentleness of his manners, died in consequence of having been arrested, and detained for a debt to a victualler, who had for some time furnished his frugal meal.”

A full account of this Institution, and some more particulars relative to Sydenham, may be seen in my Dissertation on The Theory and Practice of Benevolence.

It would be amusing to trace the characters of some of those wits, (so it seems they thought themselves) who have formerly made themselves merry with the misfortunes of learned men. Persius describes the character thus:—

Persius. sat. 1. sub sin.

Dryden.

It is observable, that those who have most violently attacked genius, have been dull unsuccessful writers. A host of such ragamuffin scribblers may be found in the Dunciad.

Plato in one of his dialogues, the Theaetetes, goes at large into the inattentions of men of genius, and the impertinence of coxcombs, and has some admirable observations on the subject.

Sir Richard Blackmore was a voluminous writer, and, what is worse, a voluminous poet. He wrote no less than six epic poems; of which Johnson says, “The first had such reputation and popularity, as enraged the critics; the second was at least known enough to be ridiculed. The two last had neither friends nor enemies.” He had stung Pope, by spreading some idle reports about him; and Pope in return stung him effectually both in his prologue to the Satires, and the Dunciad.

Hence he obtained the title of the everlasting Blackmore, and his name became proverbial for a dull poet.

Broome, also, obtains a place in Pope's list of dunces: and here resentment had its share. Broome rendered Pope essential service in the translation of the Odyssey. He translated almost half the Odyssey, and wrote the notes, and complained, after-wards, that he had not been properly rewarded by Pope. His complimentary verses to Pope discover a heart susceptible of the most respectful friendship, as well as much poetical taste. But who was originally most censurable, I inquire not. I introduce these things as anecdotes. See Johnson's Lives. There was another Broome, serving man to Ben Jonson.

Some writings ascribed to Homer, and bound up in some editions of that poet, were written by Pigres. Suidas, These are the Μαργιτης and Βατραχομαχια. The Culex, Ciris, &c. bound up in Wakefield's edition of Virgil, are supposed not to have been that elegant poet's production.

The love of fame is more powerful in some breasts, than the love of money or of power in others. In the “Poet's Fate,” I have given an instance from Herodotus, of a schoolmaster who purloined Homer's verses.

I have also read of an epic poet (I forget his name) whose works were said to have been destroyed by Homer, that he might have no rival. His name is mentioned by Phillips in his “Theatrum Poetarum.” An ancient, Heraclides, published poems entitled, Λεσχαι, that were acknowledged not to be his. Barberius, de Miseria Poetarum, exclaims, Quot hodie Heraclides! Quot hodie Λεσχαι vates! Pro appendice sit Gryllus septimus eruditissimi Glareani. Scio quod dico: adde ejusden Gryllum tertium. Taceo, quoniam veritas odium parit. —It is frequently mentioned by Suidas and Vossius, that such and such writers received not the reward and reputation of their works. Some modern instances might, perhaps, be produced. It is asserted by some writers, I believe unjustly, that the Gentle Shepherd was not written by Allan Ramsay, but by a friend. And a pretty little Irish poem entitled, Tiagharna Whaighe-eo, long ascribed to Carolan, was written by a David Murphy. I say nothing of Congratulationes Oxoniæ and Cantab. &c. in Obitum, &c. Cambridge Prize poems and certain Odes written for fame; but all is not gold that glitters, and

Pindar.

Homer in ancient times had his Zoilus. And in modern times De la Mott, (a man of genius, though he understood not Greek) has made free strictures on Homer. See his Reflexions sur la Critique. Dryden had numerous enemies, particularly Milbourne, a clergyman. And Pope was surrounded on all sides by paltry publishers and sorry authors.—A few of Virgil's verses are but half-lines, to which an allusion is made in the text.

Homer, Virgil, Dryden, and Pope were the eagles, in point of genius, the others crows, croaking at an infinite distance from these birds of the sun:

Pind. Olymp. 2.

The charming poet Collins was poor. His poetry was the effect of great thought: some of his lesser poems are beautiful; and two or three of his odes rank among the most sublime in the English language. He is, however, obscure: but his obscurities are not the κακοι ογκοι of Longinus. De Sublim, 3.

Milton was a great admirer and judicious imitator of the Grecian poets, more particularly of Euripides and Sophocles.

The great Lyric Poet, Pindar, was born at Thebes, in Bœotia, under an atmosphere that was supposed unfavourable to genius. The text alludes to a well-known passage in one of Pindar's Odes.

With all due respect for men of real honour, talents, and learning, connected with reviews, I still maintain, that these publications are articles of trade, subservient to the manœuvring of parties, and the selfishness of individuals, who are not always men distinguished by learning, talent, disinterestedness, or integrity; hence it sometimes happens, that impertinence is puffed into note, modest merit discountenanced, and public principle receives a stab. With all possible respect, therefore, for every reviewer, who is a man of honour, and of competent abilities; whatever side he espouses in politics or religion (and had I not been influenced by considerations of a public nature, prudence would have suppressed the remark), I cannot avoid observing, that men of judgment and principle read reviews with caution; and whoever is too much inflated with the praise of writers, often interested and unprincipled, or depressed by their censure, is not qualified to write for the world.

From an elegant sonnet of Thomas Parks, it seems, that things of this kind still happen. See his fiftieth sonnet, “written in a manuscript copy of Miss Sewards, after having rescued it from the printing-house.”

Dr. Johnson observes somewhere, that booksellers have been known to treat authors very ill, but that now good authors may expect to meet with good booksellers. And Bishop Warburton remarks, “that booksellers are not the worst judges or rewarders of merit.” And this, undoubtedly, in numerous instances, is exceedingly true. And no men are more entitled to the respect of men of letters, and of the public, than upright booksellers. It must, however, be allowed that the situation of a bookseller in regard to authors, is frequently a place of less immediate responsibility, than that of most other professions; and that the complaints of many men of genius and learning are not always unreasonable or illfounded.

Blackwell, in his life of Homer, observes of the ancient bards among the Greeks: “Many of them lived contemporary with Homer: no prince's court seems to have been without one or more of them, and they resorted to the great feasts and high solemnities, all over Greece, to assist at their sacrifices, and entertain the people. We know some of their names, who tuned their lyres to the foregoing subjects; but their songs are lost, and with them many a strain of true poetry and imitation.” Chap. vi. p. 80.

In Ireland also a bard was retained in great families, and distinguished by party-coloured clothes. In England, also, noble families had a minstrel attached to them, distinguished in like manner.

See Percy's English Ballads.

The progress of this character from king's poet up to the laureat, with all its honours, perquisites, &c. may be seen in Warton's History of English Poetry. Several ingenious and learned men have undoubtedly been Laureats: but to applaud all that kings and all that a nation does, has been generally found dull up-hill work, and therefore,

Dunciad, b. i. 1. 316.

Britain, divided into parties;—and what effect the ferments of party produce on the exertions of genius may be collected from the history of Milton.

That most ingenious people, the Grecians, had an early attachment to systematic philosophy, and were divided into numerous sects; but though divided in their speculations, they united in the promotion of the arts and sciences. The ancient Athenians were bound αμυνειν δε και μονοι, και μετα παντων, και ιερα τα πατρια τιμησειν, (vide Stobæi Sentent. de Republic. Sermo 41.) but were circumscribed by no such frivolous peculiarities, as have necessarily produced a sectarian spirit in England: and this could be proved from various remains of the ancient legislators and philosophers, Draco, Solon, Zeleucus, and Pythagoras. This subject I have discussed in some observations on the Athenian test oath, preserved by Stobæus, in my Enquiry into the nature of Subscription to the 39 articles, 2 Edit. p. 117.

Pericles in his celebrated funeral oration enumerates the superior advantages possessed by the Athenians over other nations, and observes, πολιν κοινην παρεχομεν, και ουκ εστιν οτε ξυνηλασιαις απειργομεν τινα η μαθηματος η θεαματος, ο μη κρυφθεν αν τις των πολεμιων ιδων ωφεληθειη. Observations similar to these are also made by Lysias and Plato, in their funeral orations.

Cartwright, in the time of Elizabeth, was the zealous champion of the puritans, on one side, in these matters, and Hooker, the author of the Ecclesiastical Polity, was considered by his party as the malleus hæreticorum, on the other. A minute distinction of all their peculiarities is made by James Pierce in Vindic. Frat. Nonconf. Part 1. in Hume's history, and Burnet's history of the Reformation.

After all, both parties, doubtless, possessed talents and learning:—but there has ever been an unwillingness in one party to do justice to the other.

Montesquieu in his Esprit des loix, and Voltaire in his letters on the English nation, ascribe the fervors of party to the spirit of liberty in the English constitution. Whether justly, I inquire not.

I am sorry to observe in so admirable a poem as the Dunciad, that Pope occasionally humours party prejudice by placing among his dunces men of great genius. Blackmore was not so very dull, as the bard of Twickenham has represented him, though rumbling enough in reason. But De Foe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, of Letters on the Spirit of Commerce, and of the True-born Englishman, was a fine genius; and even Quarles, though he chose leaden subjects, adorned them with the true gold of poetry.

However, Pope, after all, by no means adopted those principles ascribed to him in a poem, entitled the Shade of Pope.

Dream of a Dream, and Shadow of a Shade.

Many poets have confounded poetic with bacchanalian fury; hence we find Anacreon (pronior in utramq; venerem,) perpetually exclaiming,

He called himself, οινοποτης, wine-drinker, and Simonides junior called him οινοβαπης, heavy with wine. He lived and died a jolly fellow. According to Valerius Maximus he was choaked with a grape-stone.

So Horace, in the fine ode, in which he celebrates the praises of Bacchus,

Hor. Lib. I. Od. xiv.

—Satur est cum dicit Horatius, Evoe; says Juvenal.—The celebrated Persian poet Hafez, by his religion, was forbidden the use of wine; but he was a poet, and laughed at the laws of his religion. He seems to have been a lusty drinker, and some of his most elegant odes are to the tune of, Jolly mortals, fill your glasses. See Jones's Poes. Asiat. Cap. IV.

A well known blind itinerant musician and poet of Ireland, author of a poetical species of composition, known in that country by the name of Planxty, of which, “A Bumper, Squire Jones,” is a paraphrase, beginning thus,

Squire Jones, a hospitable country squire, used to give Carolan as much wine as his skin would hold, and in this excellent song the merry minstrel has embalmed the good fellow's convivial character. Carolan was a genuine representative of the ancient bard. He was always strolling about, feasting on all the good things that fell in his way: he could never tune his harp, or compose a song, says Dr. Campbell, without the inspiration of whiskey, of which, in his latter days, he always took care to have a bottle at his bed-side. Poor Carolan fell a martyr to this Irish wine. Mirth and good-humour may be helped forward by poetry, but the poet should be cautious of falling a martyr to them. The poison contained in Burn's beautiful drinking ode, called “Scotch Drink,” has been admirably counteracted by the pretty Scotch tale called, The Cotter's Saturday Evening, written by a person of the name of Mac Neal.

Dr. Johnson, in his Lives of the English Poets, has noticed this failing in several of them.

“I have more than once, “says poor Werter, “experienced the effect of drinking;—my passions have almost bordered on madness, and I do not repent of it; for I have learned by experience to know, that all those extraordinary men, who have committed any great, or seemingly supernatural actions, have at all times been branded, as if they were drunkards or madmen.” Goethe Sorrows of Werter.

But let not the sallies of good humour, of pleasure, or disappointment, be mistaken for a principle to be admitted in poetry; with that only I contend: and let me never be confounded with those sober persons,—by the bye they are often merciless hypocrites, of whom Werter exclaims, “Take shame to yourselves, ye sober, ye sages of the world.”

From the admirable dialogue of Plato's called the Phædo, it may be concluded, that Socrates considered a superiority over sensual gratifications, as going into the very essence of the philosophical character. Περι ψυχης. 8. 9. Plato's Phædrus will shew us what he thought of the poetical character.

Even Horace, a bard sufficiently convivial, in an ode that celebrates the praises of the vine, gives at the same time a caution against an immoderate and destructive use of it.

L. I. Od. xix.

Homer is generally understood by the critics (on what authority I know not) to have had an eye on himself in the character of Demodocus, in the Odyssey.

Horace indeed says of him,

Hor. Ep. Lib. I.

This passage, however, is put into the mouth of Cratinus; and Horace introduces it in order to satirize the “Imitatores Servum Pocus,” “The servile herd of imitators.”

Shakspeare could enjoy the social glass with his dramatic friends, Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher; but he was no toper. The writer of epigrams and songs may, perhaps, work himself up to a little heat by intoxication, but our sublimest poets, Milton and Gray, exercised temperance; and indeed the sublimest species of poetry demands temperance.

See Milton on the Reasons of Church Government, Book II. and his charming elegy addressed to Charles Deodatus.

We have an ingenious poem in the English language, written in the last century, called the Purple Isle, the work of Phineas Fletcher: Alexander Thomson has well described the appearances in this Island, in a modern poem entitled The Paradise of Taste. See the Seventh Canto of the Island of Fancy.

In the Pleasures of Imagination by Dr. Akenside, and in several of the Dialogues of Plato, particularly his Theætetes, may be traced the reasons of these aberrations of genius.—Alas! poor Spenser, poor Collins, poor Goldsmith, and poor Chatterton.

It is not meant to say, that even Shakspeare followed invariably a correct and chastized taste, or that he never purchased public applause by offering incense at the shrine of public taste. Voltaire, in his Essays on Dramatic Poetry, has carried the matter too far; but in many respects his reflections are unquestionably just. In delineating human characters and passions, and in the display of the sublimer excellencies of poetry, Shakspeare was unrivalled.

Milton's Sonnet to Shakspeare.

Pomp and splendour a poor substitute for genius.

The dramatic muse seems of late years to have taken her residence in Germany. Schiller, Kotzebue, and Goethé, possess great merit both for passion and sentiment, and the English nation have done them justice. One or two principles which the French and English critics had too implicity followed from Aristotle, are indeed not adopted, but have been, I hope, successfully, counteracted by these writers; yet are these dramatists characterised by a wildness bordering on extravagance, attendant on a state of half civilization. Schiller and Kotzebue, amid some faults, possess great excellencies.

With respect to England, it has been long noticed by very intelligent observers, that the dramatic taste of the present age is vitiated. Pope, who directed very powerful satire against the stage in his time, makes Dulness say in general terms,

It would be the highest arrogance in me to make such an assertion, with my slender knowledge in these matters; ready too, as I am, to admire some excellent pieces that have fallen in my way; and to affirm, that there is by no means a deficiency of poetic talent in England.

Aristotle observes, that all the parts of the Epic poet are to be found in tragedy, and, consequently, that this species of writing is, of all others, most interesting to men of talents. (Περι ποιητικης.) And baron Kotzebue thinks the theatre the best school of instruction, both in morals and taste, even for children; and that better effects are produced by a play, than by a sermon. See his life, written by himself, just translated by Anne Plumptre.

How much then is it to be wished, that so admirable a mean of amusement and instruction might be advanced to its true point of excellence! But the principles laid down by Bishop Hurd, though calculated to advance the love of splendour, will not, I suspect, advance the true province of the Drama.

Loves of the Plants, by Dr. Darwin.

The Task, by Cowper: written at the request of a lady. The introductory poem is entitled, The Sofa.

Dr. Walcot, whose poetry is of a satirical and humorous character.

The Pleasures of Memory, by Rogers; and the Pleasures of Hope, by Campbell.

Joan of Arc, by Southey;—a volume of poems with an introductory sonnet to Mary Wolstonecraft, and a poem, on the praise of woman, breathes the same spirit.

Alludes to the character of a volume of poems, entitled Lyrical Ballads. Under this head also, should be mentioned Smythe's English Lyrics.

Characteristic of a volume of poems, the joint production of Coleridge, Lloyd, and Lamb.

Descriptive Poems, such as Leusden hill, by Thomas Crowe; and the Malvern hills, by Joseph Cottle.

Roscoe's Reign of Leo de Medici is interspersed with poetry. Roscoe has also translated, The Nurse, a poem, from the Italian of Luigi Tansillo.

Icelandic poetry, or the Edda of Sæmund, translated by Amos Cottle; and the Oberon of Wieland, by Sotheby.

Thomas Maurice, the author of the Indian Autiquities, is republishing his poems; the Song to Mithra is in the third volume of Indian Antiquities.

The Paradise of Taste, and Pictures of Poetry, by Alexander Thomson.

There is a tale of this character by Dr. Aikin, and the Hermit of Warkworth by Bishop Percy. It will please the friends of taste to hear, that Cartwright's Armine and Elvira, which has been long out of print, is now republishing.

The Farmer's Boy, a poem just published, on the Seasons, by Robert Bloomfield.

Many of the anonymous poetical pieces thrown into magazines, possess poetical merit. Those of a young lady in the Monthly Magazine, will, I hope, in time be more generally known. Those of Rushton, of Liverpool, will also, I hope, be published by some judicious friend:—this worthy man is a bookseller, who has been afficted with blindness from his youth.

Gaberlunzie man, beggar man. See an old Scottish ballad with this title, in Percy's collection of English Ballads. This ballad is ascribed to James the Fifth of Scotland.

Several of the ancient Greek poets, more particularly Euripedes, in his Hippolytus, and other plays, speak degradingly of woman. There is a most exquisite piece of poetry concerning Danae, preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Περι συνθεσεως ονοματων) which has been well imitated by the Adventurer: but the same Simonides has written the most bitter iambics against the sex in general, beginning thus,

And again,

Persius, the Roman satirist, no less than Pope, the English, have a fling at women, in reference to intellect.

Plutarch, however, a very sensible and learned writer, has undertaken a defence of the sex, in a treatise on the Virtues of Women, contending, that virtue, talents, and genius, are not specifically distinct in the two sexes; and that the sweetest melodies in poetry, and great excellence in the art of painting, were attained by one sex as well as the other. Mary Woolstonecraft Godwin, and her memorialist Mary Hays, have scarcely exceeded the observation, “that individual unlikenesses exclude not from specific definitions.”

Sappho, loved by Anacreon. Her celebrated ode beginning,

is produced by Longinus as one of the noblest and completest examples of the sublime; and it has been transferred into all languages that have attempted poetry. We have a fine translation of it in English. Modern critics have also done it justice; and there is no poem of antiquity, of the same size, that has been so scrutinized by the nice severities of criticism.

The ode of Erynna, commonly bound up with Anacreon's and Sappho's odes, possess great poetical spirit.

Pindar, it is said, was excited to write poetry, by hearing the poetical recitations of Corinna, and was five times conquered by a female poet. See Vossius de Poetis Græcis.

While Ægidius Menidius has done justice to female philosophers (Hist. Mulierum Philosopharum, ad Annam Fabram Dacieram) those who have made lists of poets have not thought the poetesses unworthy of their notice. See Valerianus de Miseriis Poetarum Græc. and Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum Græcorum, sub fin.

Socrates, as well as Pericles, was a great admirer of the celebrated Aspasia, who is spoken of not only as a philosopher and rhetorician, but as a poet. I have not heard that we have any of her poetical remains: but the Menexenus of Plato, though expressive of a little satire against the character of a rhetorician, affords proof, that Socrates must have thought very highly of the talents of Aspasia, in that respect.

Vittoria Colonna accounted the principal Italian poetess, of whom Alexander Thomson, after speaking of Guistina, the fair pupil of Petrarch, says,

Thomson's Pictures of Poetry.

Madame and Mademoiselle Deshouilliers. Their poems are in two volumes. Des Moutons, les Oiseaux, and les Fleurs, have been much admired. Two or three of Madame Deshouilliers' songs have all the energetic softness of Sappho. She is allowed to be the first of the French poetesses.

Madame Dacier was a critic and translator, rather than a poetess. Several of the first poetical productions of Greece she translated into French prose, more particularly the Iliad and Odyssey.

The poems entitled Corsica, the Tears of the Tankard, and the Mouse's Petition, of Letitia Barbauld, wife of Rochmond Barbauld, and sister of Dr. Aikin, are well known.

The names of Smith, More, Williams, Robinson, Carter, Seward, Opie, and Christall, are well known:—whoever wishes to be acquainted with such other English ladies, as have attempted poetry, may receive satisfaction from two volumes of poems, written entirely by ladies, published, if I mistake not, about twenty years ago, (I have not the volumes at hand).—Two of the best modern writers of plays, at least that I have read, are ladies.

Whoever has seen the Milton Gallery, by Fuseli, will immediately perceive that I allude to a design of his from the L'Allegro.

Vide Æliani Var. Hist. Sect. 29. From that ornament of the judge among the Egyptians, Moses, no doubt, derived the ornament worn on the breast-plate of the Jewish high-priest.