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,
FANCY, a bafhful nymph, had fix'd her feat,
Amid the windings of a ftill retreat;

In wilds embofom'd and with woods o'ergrown,
Where ne'er the bufy steps of man were known;
Where noify Interruption never came,
Nor ever Echo hail'd one focial name.
Amid thefe fhades 'twas her delight to dwell
And mufe within her folitary cell.

Το

To reach that cell a fecret paffage wound,
By goats, the mountain wanderers, only found:
Which hunting danger o'er the rocky steep,
Defied the horrors of the nether deep.
Around the flaunting honey-fuckle flung
Its wreathing arms and in rich clusters hung.
And flowers fantastic of all orders gay,
Were emulous their bloffoms to display;
Wild fruits adorn'd the loaded trees around,
And the wood-ftrawberry blufh'd upon the ground.
Large was the cave within; its rugged fides
In christal chain'd the moisture's dripping tides.
Phosphoric bodies spread around their light,
And made the place in native fplendour bright.
Here golden veins their mazy luftre fhew'd,
Rich diamonds blaz'd, and ruddy rubies glow'd;
The emerald's green, the amethyst's ftrong blue,
The yellow topaz, mix'd their various hue;
In magic colours fhed a day their own,
And in an ever-changing brilliance fhone.
Oft on her couch the nymph in liftless ease,
Would fleeping waste the fultry fummer's days;
On light transparent wings while dreams flew round,
And thook from murmuring air a lulling found.
Thick dancing fo in noon-day's yellow beam,
The million infects gayly coloured gleam.
So frequent fparks, the circling wheel displays,
And gilds the night with artificial rays.
The nymph had various taftes; fhe would delight
To fit by glowing embers in the night,
And picture figures in the changing light.
Then mufing oft fhe ftray'd abroad at eve,

To note what shapes the floating clouds could give;
Sometimes the fought the depths of nightly fhade,
Or watch'd the moon beams fleeping on the glade;
Or idly view'd in air the bubbles float,

Or liften'd to the bafhful cuckoo's note;

Or pleas'd would fee the ftream meand'ring glide,
And playful fun-beams dancing on the tide';
Full oft the fray'd deep roaring torrents near ;
In filence then repos'd her lift'ning ear,

And on the ground to catch each found would lay*,
And shake at every trembl'ing of the spray.
Penfive o'er midnight graves alone fhe trod,
Disturbing ghofts amid their lone abode ;
Or oft by peacocks drawn in ambient air,
Wild as a tempeft rush'd her rapid car.

To diftant climes on wings of thought would stray,
Or in the northern lights amufive play.

}

REV. MARCH, 1795.

*For lie.
T

Gay

}

Gay were her steps, when earth became her care;
Eafe mov'd her limbs and all her form was fair.
Her robe, dyed in the rainbow, at each view,
With varied tiffue fhone and colours new.
It chanc'd as once, the nymph, intent to ftray,
Walk'd forth to taste the fweets of blooming May,
GENIUS, the eideft born of light, furvey'd
The various beauties of the matchlefs maid.
High on a mountain's top he fat and faw,
The light fantastic nymph her figures draw
And give a varied grace to all below.
Love in the inftant all his bofom fir'd,
And playing there each tender with infpir'd.
A veil of filver-light his figure bound,
And circling rays of gold his temples crown'd.
Lit in the Sun, a torch his hand fuftain'd,
The emblem of the power, which he maintain'd.
When touch'd by this, the foul afcends on high
And dull obstructions yield, though loth to fly,
And vainly 'gainft its fpeed their weight apply.
Loose were his limbs, by no clofe garments brac'd,
Two amply fpreading wings his fhoulders grac'd.
With thefe, through Heaven he ftretch'd his bolder flight,
Or pierc'd in central earth, the depths of night.
Beyond the Sun his courfe would oft afpire,

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,
Beauty his form adorn'd and grace his air.

Soon to the nymph he made his passion known;
Nor loth the nymph an equal flame to own.

Not long when both were pleas'd, nor heeded law,
Delay, or form, the hours of courtship faw,
The nuptial rites perform'd, then FANCY's cave
A bleft retreat to happy GENIUS gave.'

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,
The light fantastic nymph her figures draw,
And give a varied grace to all below.'

}

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,
The father of his art by all confeft.

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.
In vain the royal mother's tears lament,
Or aged fire bemoans the dire event.
His country's guardian near the city walls,
Yields to relentless fate and nobly falls.
T 2

ᎢᏂ

The Gods contending fill the thund'ring fkies;
Till Troy, unhappy Troy,-in ruin lies.'

cr

Mr. POPE.

High on the first, the mighty Homer fhone;
Eternal adamant compos'd his throne:
Father of verfe! in holy fillets drefs'd,
His filver beard wav'd gently o'er his breaft.
Though blind, a boldness in his looks appears;
In years he feem'd, but not impair'd by years.
The wars of Troy were round the pillar feen,
Here fierce Tydides wounds the Cyprian Queen;
Here Hector, glorious from Patroclus' fall,
Here dragg'd in triumph round the Trojan wall.
Motion and life did every part infpire,

Bold was the work, and prov'd the master's fire.
A ftrong expreffion moft he feem'd t' affect,
And here and there difclos'd a brave neglect."

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
Here, like fome furious Prophet, Pindar rode,
And feem'd to labour with the infpiring God.
Acrofs the harp a careless hand he flings,
And boldly finks into the founding strings.
The figur'd games of Greece the column grace,
Neptune and Jove furvey the rapid race.
The youths hang o'er their chariots as they run;
The fiery feeds feem ftarting from the ftone;
The champions in diftorted poflures threat;
And all appeared irregularly great."

B:DLAKE.

Beneath, where he who rul'd the winged horfe,
Rush'd on th' afcending fun with rapid course;
One fteady eye his diftant track puríu'd,
And utt'ring fmoother lays, intently view'd.
Then fat him down beneath a shady tree,
And gave the paling hours to wit and glee.
His brow and bowl, a rof, chaplet crown'd,
While rich libations fed the thirty ground.
He call'd his friends, the purple wine to share,
And wafte in mirth the fear of future care.'

POPE.