spread before his view and offered to his use. He has nothing to do but to choose from those abundant stores. But to perform his task well, he must choose appropriately and pleasingly. His difficulty is not in the want of materials for choice, but in the embarrassment occasioned by the superabundance of all that is attractive, exalted, and lovely being offered to his acceptance, and the necessity he is under of selecting the fairest where all things are so fair. His judgment and good taste are here put on their trial. He is placed in a condition in which the success of his labours will be in proportion to his discernment rather than his invention.

That Akenside selected materials from the abundant field on which he had entered, with the taste of a poet, if not always with the skill of a philosopher, the world has decided. That he overlooked many topics and illustrations which would have made a better figure in his poem than some that he adopted, is not to be denied. But in selecting from such variety, where is the mortal who would make no mistake? It may be also asked, where is the mortal who would have made fewer?

We will now take a cursory view of the leading topics of this poem, and of the manner in which they are elucidated. We shall thus ascertain the propriety of their selection, and be enabled also to judge of the poetical character of the style in which they are. treated.

The chief object of the first book is the same as

that of Addison in the second and third papers of his essay on the Imagination. It is to show that the delight we receive from the contemplation of objects arises from either their greatness, their wonderfulness, or their beauty. It is in this part of his work that our poet most closely follows Addison. In following the doctrines of Addison, however, he only follows the suggestions of truth. His manner of enforcing and illustrating these is entirely his own, and it is eminently poetical. He says,—

"Know then, whate'er of Nature's pregnant stores,
Whate'er of mimic art's reflected forms
With love and admiration thus inflame
The powers of fancy, her delighted sons
To three illustrious orders have referr'd,
Three sister graces whom the painter's hand,
The poet's tongue confesses,-the sublime,
The wonderful, the fair."

In expatiating on the pleasure we derive from the contemplation of greatness, he asks why man was made so eminent in the creation, and rendered capable of extending his thoughts beyond the limit of his existence, if it were not that his aims might be exalted to the performance of mighty deeds pleasing to both mortals and immortals,

"While the voice

Of truth and virtue, up the steep ascent
Of nature, calls him to his high reward,
Th' applauding smile of Heaven?"

He then proceeds, in a bold strain of animated and majestic poetry, to exemplify the soarings of the daring and ambitious spirit of man, and shows how it

"Pursues the flying storm;

Rides on the volley'd lightning through the heavens ;
Or yoked with whirlwinds or the northern blast,
Sweeps the long tract of day."

He ascribes the grandeur of these aspirations of the human soul, to the intention of the Creator that she should not rest content with any condition short of absolute perfection. The inference is natural, that our admiration of sublime objects is implanted in us, as an incitement to exalted and ennobling desires for the attainment of a state of higher perfection. He exclaims,

"How far beyond

The praise of mortals, may th' eternal growth
Of nature to perfection half divine,

Expand the blooming soul?"

He next proceeds to account for the uncommon and the wonderful affording enjoyment to the mind, by considering it a provision of the Deity to arouse us from sloth, and stimulate us to activity by an eagerness to enjoy the pleasure of novelty. He exemplifies this by the impulses of curiosity, manifested by travellers who explore unknown regions, and by students who investigate with laborious diligence the secrets of nature, and by the strained attention with which old and young listen to tales of wonder:

"Hence finally at night

The village matron, round the blazing hearth,
Suspends the infant audience with her tales-
Breathing astonishment! of witching rhymes,
And evil spirits; of the death-bed call;

Of him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd
The orphan's portion," &c.

Proceeding then to the enjoyments derived from beauty, his verse becomes doubly inspired, and flows glowingly in numbers, kindled into harmony by the rapturous blandishments of the theme :

"O, bear then unreproved

Thy smiling treasures to the green recess,
Where young Dione stays. With sweetest airs
Entice her forth to lend her angel form
For beauty's honour'd image. Hither turn
Thy graceful footsteps; hither, gentle maid,
Incline thy polish'd forehead: let thy eyes
Effuse the mildness of their azure dawn;
And may the fanning breezes waft aside
Thy radiant locks: disclosing, as it bends
With airy softness from the marble neck,
The cheek fair blooming and the rosy lip,

Where winning smiles, and pleasures sweet as love,
With sanctity and wisdom tempering, blend

Their soft allurement."

He afterwards takes occasion to exalt the delights springing from moral beauty, above those, precious as they are, which are derived from the splendour and fascination of material forms :

"Is aught so fair

In all the dewy landscapes of the spring,
In the bright eye of Hesper and the morn,
In Nature's fairest forms is aught so fair,
As virtuous friendship? as the candid blush
Of him who strives with fortune to be just?
The graceful tear that streams for others' woes ?
Or the mild majesty of private life,

Where peace with ever-blooming olive crowns
The gate; where honour's liberal hands effuse
Unenvied treasures, and the snowy wings
Of Innocence and Love protect the scene."

Our poet concludes this book with an animated apostrophe to the genius of ancient Greece, in which his enthusiasm for the beauties of classical song, and his reverence for the memory of the worthies of the Athenian age, are strongly manifested. He thus invokes the genius of the classic land :

"Bring all thy martial spoils,

Thy palms, thy laurels, thy triumphal songs,
Thy smiling band of arts, thy godlike sires
Of civil wisdom, thy heroic youth,

Warm from the schools of glory."

He then gives way to the feelings of a Briton, and with an ardour of patriotism for which he was noted among his contemporaries, he continues his invoca

tion:

"From the blooming store
Of these auspicious fields, may I, unblamed,
Transplant some living blossoms to adorn
My native clime: while far above the flight
Of fancy's plume aspiring, I unlock