inaptitude for original and independent exertion. Most assuredly, he was not of the order of Shakspeare, or of Milton. Whether or not he was at the head of his own order, we have not to determine. Our question inquires of kind, not of degree. It might admit, however, a doubt, whether Dryden was not superior in degree. We ask, whether Shakspeare and Milton were not superior in kind ?

Our opponents are inimical to metaphysical distinctions. Had they been favourable to such analysis, they might have observed the fact just adverted to, and traced it to that exclusive predisposition of the faculties, in which peculiar genius consists, and that overpowering energy by which it is developed, Metaphysics appear to be essential to poetry; and, by consequence, to be metaphysical, is essential to a poet. Metaphysics have been termed the poetry of thought; and, verily, they are not that dry, uninteresting study, which the merely physical would have us to believe: they withdraw our attention from the corporeal vicissitudes with which we are beset, and fix it upon the infinite,~ eternal,—and immutable ; the infinite, the eternal, the immutable, into which it is the peculiar office of the imagination to transmute every thing it touches. And I cannot conceive how-without knowledge of the operations of the mind, and of the modes by which the human spirit manifests itself in its different moods of passion or of apathy, it was possible for Shakspeare or Milton to have produced those combinations of character and conduct, which have never since been equalled. Metaphysical science was absolutely necessary for the concoction of "Paradise Lost;" and, from reference to his prose works, I cannot doubt for a moment that Milton was the most excellent metaphysician of his day. Shakspeare is the best metaphysician the world ever produced; and every character which he drew is an illustration, and a witness to the truth, of this remark!

But this objection to metaphysical distinctions came with an ill grace from the advocates of Pope's "monotony in wire," for they themselves were most metaphysical. It seems, the "Rape of the Lock" was not amenable to the censure passed upon burlesque poetry; it did not degrade, but it exalted; it raised a mean subject to importance, and invested the ridiculous with ideal distinction: it was not a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, but from the ridiculous to the sublime. But what will the advocates of Pope say for the following passage?

"Now Jove suspends his golden scales in air,
Weighs the men's wits against the lady's hair;
The doubtful beam long nods from side to side,
At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside.'

Compare this with the following extract from Homer, in his own translation:

"But when the sun the height of heav'n ascends,
The sire of gods his golden scale suspends,
With equal band: in these explor'd the fate

Of Greece and Troy, and pois'd the mighty weight;
Press'd with its load, the Grecian balance lies

Low sunk on earth, the Trojan strikes the skies."

"The Rape of the Lock," and "the Dunciad," are composed of parodies, managed in the wey which the passages just recited illustrate. Is there any one who is prepared to argue, that the sublime original, thus reduced to association with the ridiculous and little, and degraded to purposes so trivial and ludicrous, is not unfeelingly injured and violated? I cannot conceive the writer to have sympathy or regard for the beauty and the greatness which he so abuses! But yet more, "the Almighty-the God of Gods*!" is introduced as an agent active in this scene of ridicule and burlesque. Pope cannot excuse himself from the charge by the employment of the word "Jove," and pretend that the Heathen Mythology is fair game; he has himself taught us better,

"Father of all in every age,

In every clime ador'd,

By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!"

One name with me is as hallowed as the other; and it avails him but little to say, that to propitiate his propensity for the burlesque, he has only profaned the name under which the sublime Plato, and the Stagyrite, and Homer, and the mighty and the philosophical intellects of the Heathen world, worshipped the great First Cause, least understood."

But a classical mind associates these two passages, thus parodied, with two others wherewith they are parallel,—one from Milton, "God's own poet;" the other from the Bible, God's own poem! Turn to the end of the fourth book of "Paradise Lost." Gabriel, drawing forth his bands of nightwatch to walk the round of Paradise, appoints two strong angels to Adam's bower, lest the evil spirit should be there doing some harm to Adam and Eve sleeping; there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel; by whom questioned, he scornfully answers, and prepares resistance.

* See Iliad, b. viii. 1. 22.

The reverse, for in all cases a reverse is possible, is the appropriate business of burlesque and travesty, a predominant taste for which has been always deemed a mark of a low and degraded mind."-Coleridge, vol. ii. p. 127.

It might be sufficient, for the purposes of the present question, to prove that there were poets of a higher order than that in which Mr. Pope excelled. It might be unfair to mention the name of Shakspeare, in comparison with that of Pope, the Myriad-minded Bard, the Swan of Avon, with the Wasp of Twickenham,-seeing that the latter never attempted dramatic composition. He may, however, be contrasted with Milton. It is unnecessary to pronounce an eulogium on that greatest of poets; his merits are acknowledged. Compare Pope's finest work, his "Elegy to the Memory of an unfortunate Young Lady," with Milton's Verses on the Death of a fair Infant, which died of a cough." The subject of Pope was calculated to kindle every feeling, and awaken every sympathy of the human heart; Milton's was barren and uninteresting: and, in deciding on their relative merits, Pope has every advantage from the nature of his subject. Pope felt this; and accordingly contented himself with giving the mere matter of fact, the circumstantial detail; and · suggesting an old truism, by way of moral, that

-

"Poets themselves must fall, like those they sung."

A sentiment very prettily expressed; but, for all that, not very original. How differently did Milton proceed in the poem before us to the simple fact, simple as simplicity itself, he added an exquisite display of intellectual power; it is sealed with the ideality of his own mind; his own ideal identity; his signet is upon it; and his imagination has stamped it with its own form. Raised to that state of passionate excitement, in which poetry lives and breathes, all his classical recollections throng upon him to illustrate and embellish the theme about which he is engaged. The intellectual and the imaginative faculties co-operate; and even in this, one of the least exertions of his wonderful genius, do we behold made manifest and palpable the mysterious enthronement of the highest intellect in the loftiest imagination. "The intellectual power

Bends from his awful throne a wondering ear,

And smiles."

The ADVOCATES for the POETICAL SUPREMACY of POPE maintained, that the opinion of foreigners, in favour of the poetic

genius of the country, was founded principally on the poetry of Pope. That opinion was characteristic of a poet whose merits exceeded those of a mere imitator or translator. They could not agree with the construction put upon the question by the opener It did not inquire whether there ever was a greater poet than Pope; for, it must be admitted, that he was inferior to Homer, to Milton, and Shakspeare; but, whether he was one of those poets to whom we should refer to establish the poetical fame of the country. Who was there who would refuse to place him in that illustrious list? They could not concede to many of the opinions which had been uttered with respect to the various works of Pope. If we seek for "the thoughts that breathe, and the words that burn," read that excellent poem of "Eloisa to Abelard." There the highest display of passion is united with the most musical arrange ment of harmonious versification. The ode on "St. Cecilia's Day" must be allowed to be inferior to the other works of Pope; still it is not altogether a failure, and is far from being defective in harmony. The following passage is peculiarly harmonious :

"But when our country's cause provokes to arms,
How martial music every bosom warms!

So when the first bold vessel dared the seas,
High on the stern the Thracian rais'd his strain,
While Argo saw her kindred trees

Descend from Pelion to the main.
Transported demigods stood round,
And men grew heroes at the sound,
Inflam'd with glory's charms:
Each chief his sevenfold shield display'd,
And half unsheath'd the shining blade;
And seas, and rocks, and skies rebound
To arms! to arms! to arms!"

With respect to the opinion quoted from Mr. Coleridge, they had always heard that metaphysicians were the worst poets, and did not think that the Institution should decide the question on their authority. If poetry was the exertion of "the highest intellect enthroned in the highest imagination,". then certainly they conceived that the "Essay on Man" was perfectly within the terms of the definition; it was full of beautiful sentiments, and fine passages, which were continually recurring to the memory: indeed, there were more passages in the recollection of the public from the productions of Pope. than from any other poet who had ever written.

The ma

jority, at any rate, were in his favour. They thought that the Pastorals" had been unjustly classed; they were the productions of a very early age, and were looked on by the learned of the time as an earnest of his future greatness. The heroi-comic poetry of Pope was not amenable to the censure passed upon it by his impugner. The "Rape of the Lock" does not degrade the great and beautiful thoughts of exalted genius, but merely excites the mirth of the reader, by giving to that which was mean an air of importance. The sylphs in that poem were certainly the creatures of Pope's imagination : here, at any rate, he might lay claim to originality.

To the genius of Milton all homage is due; nevertheless, they could not avoid thinking, that there was something like pedantry in the poem alluded to,-something like burying the warmth of the subject under the coldness of allegory,—a fault not attributable to the writings of Pope.

Lastly, in his translation of Homer's Iliad, there was a convincing and overpowering proof of the sublime talents of Mr. Pope. The difficulties of an attempt to render such an author as Homer, with the poetic fire and elegance displayed by Mr. Pope, must be evident from the number of unsuccessful attempts. The failure of Cowper was most egregious. Pope had succeeded where so many had failed, and had achieved a title to be ranked among poets of the first order. In their opinion, he had realized the description of a poet which had been given by Shakspeare

"The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
And as imagination bodies forth

The form of things unknown, the poet's pen

Turns them to shape, and gives to airy nothing

A local habitation and a name."

UPON THE OTHER HAND, it was replied, that had Pope realized this description, we should then have been spared the invidious task of opposing his title to an order which it is probable he never claimed for himself; and England might now have boasted another among the great poets, who have made her name harmonious and famous among the nations. -To characterize him as the man on whose talents the poetical fame of the country must depend, is such an outrage upon reason and taste, as almost sufficient to kindle our indignation and to urge us to pronounce that he was no poet at all! Considered as the one upon whom the poetical fame of our country rests, he is not entitled to the denomination. Have there been no Shakspeares,-no Miltons? Is Pope the poet