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stance in heightening a description, the following paffage may be produced from his Summer, where, relating the effects of heat in the torrid zone, he is led to take notice of the pestilence, that destroyed the English fleet at Carthagena under Admiral Vernon..

-You, gallant Vernon, faw

The miferable scene; you pitying faw

To infant weakness funk the warrior's arm;
Saw the deep racking pang; the ghastly form;-
The lip pale quivering, and the beamless eye
No more with ardor bright; you heard the groans
Of agonizing fhips from shore to shore ;

Heard nightly plunged amid the fullen waves

The frequent corfe.

All the circumstances, here felected, tend to heighten the dismal fcene; but the last image is the most striking in the picture.

Of descriptive narration there are beautiful examples in Parnell's Tale of the Hermit. The fetting forth of the hermit to vifit the world, his meeting a companion, and the houses, in which they are entertained, of the vain man, the covetous man, and the good man, are pieces of highly finished painting. But the richest and the most remarkable of all the defcriptive poems in the English language are the Allegro and the Penferofo of Milton. They are the ftorehouse, whence many fucceeding poets have enriched their defcriptions, and are inimitably fine poems. Take, for inftance, the following lines from the Penferofo ;

-I walk unfeen

On the dry, fmoothfhaven green,
To behold the wandering moon
Riding near her highest noon;
And oft, as if her head fhe bow'd,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
Oft on a plat of rifing ground
I hear the far off curfew found,
Over fome wide watered fhore
Swinging flow with solemn roar ;
Or, if the air will not permit,
Some still removed place will fit,
Where glowing embers through the room

Teach light to counterfeit a gloom ;
Far from all refort of mirth,

Save the cricket on the hearth,

Or the bellman's drowfy charm,

To bless the doors from nightly harm ;;
Or let my lamp at midnight hour
Be seen in fome high lonely tower,
Exploring Plato, to unfold

What worlds, or what vast regions hold
The immortal mind, that hath forfook
Her manfion in this fleshy nook;

And of these demons, that are found

In fire,, in air, flood, or under ground.

Here are no general expreffions; all is picturefque, expreffive, and concife. One ftrong point of view is exhibited to the reader; and the impreffion made is lively and interefting.

Both Homer and Virgil excel in poetical defeription.

In the fecond Æneid the facking of Troy is fo particularly defcribed, that the reader finds himself in the midst of the fcene. The death of Priam is a masterpiece of defcription. Homer's battles are all wonderful. Offian too paints in ftrong colors, and is remarkable for touching the heart. He thus pourtrays the ruins of Balclutha ; "I have feen the walls of Balclu "tha; but they were defolate. The fire had refound"ed within the halls; and the voice of the people is "now heard no more. The stream of Clutha, was re"moved from its place by the fall of the walls; the "thistle shook there its lonely head;, the mofs whistled "to the wind.. The fox looked out of the window; “the rank grass waved round his head. Desolate is "the dwelling of Moina; filence is in the house of her "fathers."

Much of the beauty of defcriptive poetry depends up. on a proper choice of epithets. Many poets are often careless in this particular; hence the multitude of unmeaning and redundant epithets. Hence the " Liqui "di Fontes" of Virgil, and the "Prata Canis Albi"cant Pruinis" of Horace. To abferve that water is liquid, and that fnow is white, is little better, than mere tautology. Every epithet fhould add a new idea: to the word, which it qualifies. So in Milton ;

Who fhall tempt with wandering feet
The dark, unbottomed, infinite abyss;
And through the palpable obfcure find aut:

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His uncouth way? Or fpread his airy flighty
Upborn with indefatigable wings,

Over the vast abrupt?

The description here is ftrengthened by the epithets The wandering feet, the unbottomed abyss, the palpable obfcure, the uncouth way, the indefatigable wing, are all happy expreffions.

THE POETRY OF THE HEBREWS.

IN treating of the various kinds of poetry that of the

Scriptures justly deferves a place. The facred books prefent us the most antient monuments of poetry now ex~ tant, and furnish a curious fubject of criticifm. They dif play the taste of a remote age and country. They exhibit a fingular, but beautiful species of compofition; and it muft give great pleasure, if we find the beauty and dignity of the style adequate to the weight and importance of the matter. Dr. Lowth's learned treatise on the poetry of the Hebrews ought to be perused by all. It is an exceedingly valuable work both for elegance of ftyle and justness of criticism. We cannot do better than to follow the track of this ingenious author.

Among the Hebrews poetry was cultivated from the earliest times. Its general conftruction is fingular and peculiar. It confifts in dividing every period into correfpondent, for the most part into equal members,

which answer to each other both in fenfe and found. In the first member of a period a fentiment is expreffed; and in the fecond the fame fentiment is amplified, or repeated in different terms, or fometimes contrasted with its oppofite. Thus, "Sing unto the Lord a new "fong; fing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto "the Lord, and bless his name; fhew forth his falvation "from day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen; his wonders among all people."

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This form of poetical compofition is deduced from the manner, in which the Hebrews fung their facred hymns. Thefe were accompanied with mufic, and performed by bands of fingers and musicians, who al ternately answered each other. One band began the hymn thus; "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice;" and the chorus, or femi-chorus, took up the corresponding verficle; "Let the multitudes of the ifles be glad "thereof."

The

But, independent of its eculiar mode of construction, the facred poetry is diftinguished by the highest beauties of ftrong, concife, bold, and figurative expreffion. Concifeness and strength are two of its most remárkable characters. The fentences are always fhort, fame thought is never dwelt upon long. Hence the fublimity of the Hebrew poetry; and all writers, who attempt the fublime, might profit much by imitating in this refpect the ftyle of the old teftament. No writings abound fo much in bold and animated figures, as the

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