THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, OR LITERARY MISCELLANY, FOR JULY, 1799. FOR THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. The GLEANER, No. IX. The groves of Eden, vanish'd now fo long, AS I was clofing my laft number, a learned friend made me a vifit, and finding I had been writing, inquired the fubject of the compofition. I told him that I had been throwing together a few defultory reflections on Defcriptive Poetry. As my friend had newly perufed Knight's Effay on the Greek Alphabet, he informed me, with very little ceremony, that he had a very mean opinion of critical compofitions, as well as of the fublime art of criticism. Criticism, faid he, affects to inform us when we thould approve and difapprove of literary compofitions, and applies her gauging-rod with equal precifion to the feelings of the heart and the flights of fancy. She pretends to direct our judgment and modulate our tafte, as if our judgment could not judge for itself, nor tafte decide without the help of rules. Shew any perfon of common fenfe, proceeded my friend, a ballad, an elegy, a heroic, or even a defcriptive poem, and he will be at no lofs to determine whether it be good or bad from the feelings which it excites in his mind. He can only give you his private opinion, you will fay; and after all, can your critic give you any thing more than his private POPE. opinion? The public voice difregards all rules, and foon appreciates the genuine merit of any production. We fee tragedies and comedies compofed according to the very formulas of critical prefcription; the critics pronounce that they fhall be immortal, but the public voice condemns them at once to oblivion. Shakespear neither wrote by rules, nor is to be judged by rules; and there is the new Euripides of Germany, Kotzebue, who breaks all the unities, fets the poetics of Ariftotle at defiance, and yet prefides over all the emotions of the foul with irresistible fway. My friend continued to enumerate a multitude of fimilar inftances, and then victorioufly clenched his proof with the authority of Knight; who, in his Effay on the Greek Alphabet, admits no kind of critical merit but that which is verbal. To this fluent harangue I replied, that as this Knight has really very great merit as a verbal critic, it was a great pity that he fhould infift upon depreciating those critics who extend their attention to fentences, and paragraphs, and chapters, and fections, and even to whole books; but that, with all deference to the Effay on the Greek Alphabet, I ap A 2 prehended, prehended, that the reafons of our opinions might always be afcertained by attending accurately to their ob jects, and the fenfations which thefe produce in our minds; that by attending to objects in connection with the emotions which they excite, we may discover both the origin and nature of our different ideas of tafte, whether fublime, beautiful, pathetic, or picturefque, whether witty, humourous, or ludicrous; and that upon this procefs of attention or judgment, the principles of the critical art depended, and were, therefore, no more fallacious than any other fpecies of fcientific reafoning. Thus criticifm arranges in luminous order our confufed ideas, demonftrates thofe fubtile but important relations of our ideas that are apt to escape our notice, unravels the mazes of perception and thought, and fepa. rates the effential from the accidental, in those impreffions which are made úpon the mind. In the defcriptive poets, criticifm affifts us in the study of nature, for in the delineations of the poet we are not confounded by the diverfity which nature prefents. Different objects are better defined and feparated from the groups by which they are furrounded, and the different emotions are referred more diftinctly to the objects by which they are excited. We learn to ftudy the original by means of a fion, if the expreffion may be used. With these observations my friend was no more satisfied than I had been with the authority of Knight in the Effay on the Greek alphabet, and we parted, according to the cultom of difputants, each more convinced of the truth and propriety of his own opinion. So I proceeded to make the following obfervations on Defcriptive Poets, and left my friend to perufe Knight's Effay on the Greek Alphabet. ver. the and poetical powers, joined with confiderable faults both of thought and diction. The author attempts to convey to the English reader a correct idea of Alpine fcenery: an undertaking arduous as it was bold; for, as he afferts, "the controuling influence which diftinguishes the Alps from all other fcenery, is derived from images which difdain the pencil." In conveying the general characters along with the individual fcenery, he is frequently very fuccefsful. His defcriptions are often graphically minute, but always sketched with energy and ftrong conception. We enjoy all the pleafures of the pedeftrian traveller, and are ready to admit with the author, that did happiness refide on earth, her abode would be, Where murmuring rivers join the song of Even, Where falls the purple morning far and wide WORKSWORTH'S DESCRIPTIVE: The blazing forefts throwing rich SEETCHES difplay great originality golden verdure on the waves, are all of It is impoffible to particularize the minute touches of. description, which are equally fpirited and characteriftic. Some of the sketches poffefs peculiar excellence, as the Grifon gypfey-a very different being from the gypfey of Goldsmith and of Rogers. Many of the circumftances which compofe this picture are frightful to the fancy. The roofed bridge, where she is driven for fhelter, quivers in the storm, and the water fpirits call fearfully from below; a folitary light glimmers in the vale the death-dog howls, and banditti voices talk, the bushes ruftle, and the wolf approaches at the cry of her child. The Lake of Uri is delineated in a more chaste and correct file, and almoft with the pencil of Goldfmith. The Chamois Chacer, and the life of the Swifs Mountaineer, are ftriking and original sketches, as well as the Slavery of Savoy, and the Influence of Liberty on Cottage Happiness. Every perfon of real tafte, that perufes thefe sketches, will immediately recognize the true enthufiaftic energy of poetry, both in the sentiment and in the expreffion; but he will at the fame time regret the uncorrect colouring which often sheds a falfe and tawdry luftre over the real beauties of defcription. The language is strong and vigorous, but defective in refpe&t of fimplicity: the phrafeology is often original, but clogged with exuberance of epithet, and allures us from the ferenity of observation, and the sweet deceptions of fympathy, to attend to its own uncommon ftructure. Indeed the labour of compofition is too apparent both in the fentiment and the expreffion The ftructure becomes gawdy from redundance of ornament; and refembles a Grecian temple deformed by the minute fritterings of Go. thic architecture. L. [Observations on BOWLES'S COOMBE ELLEN in our next Number.] TO THE EDITOR OF THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. SIR, Iitera was Voltaire admired compofitions that are genetally reckoned original, there is very little originality. Not only are the fineft thoughts which occur in one fpecies of writing tranfplanted from another, incidents modified anew, and the names of characters changed, but even the plans of the most ori that he compares the inftructions we derive from books to fire, which we obtain from others, kindle at home, and communicate till it become the property of all. Every perfon has heard of the German who curfed the ancients for ftealing his good thoughts; but it muftbe owned that the |