and fublime: and the obfervation, that the dangerous paffions kept aloof, during the operation, is founded on the ftrictest philofophical truth; for poetical fancy can exist only in minds that are perfectly ferene, and in fome measure abftracted from the influences of fenfe. THE scene of Milton's " inspiring hour" is perfectly in character, and defcribed with all those wild-wood-appearances of which the great poet was fo enthufiaftically fond: I view that oak, the fancied glades among, By which, as Milton lay, his evening ear, Nigh spher'd in heaven its native strains could hear. O DE, WRITTEN IN THE YEAR MDCCXLVI. ODE TO MERCY. HE ode written in 1746, and the ode TH to Mercy, seem to have been written on the fame occafion, viz. the late rebellion; the former in memory of those heroes who fell in the defence of their country, the latter to excite fentiments of compaffion in favour of those unhappy and deluded wretches who became a facrifice to public justice. THE language and imagery of both are very beautiful; but the scene and figures defcribed in the ftrophe of the ode to Mercy are exquifitely ftriking, and would afford a painter one of the finest subjects in the world. L ODE TO LIBERTY. HE ancient ftates of Greece, perhaps TH the only ones in which a perfect model of liberty ever exifted, are naturally brought to view in the opening of the poem. Who fhall awake the Spartan fife, The youths whofe locks divinely spread ing, Like vernal hyacinths in fullen hue. There is something extremely bold in this imagery of the locks of the Spartan youths, and greatly fuperior to that description Jocafta gives us of the hair of Polynices; Βοτρύχων τε κυανόχρωτα χαίτας Πλοκαμον. What What new Alcæus, fancy-bleft, This alludes to a fragment of Alcæus ftill remaining, in which the poet celebrates Harmodius and Ariftogiton, who flew the tyrant Hipparchus, and thereby restored the liberty of Athens. THE fall of Rome is here most nervously defcribed in one line: With heaviest found, a giant-statue fell. The thought seems altogether new, and the imitative harmony in the ftructure of the verfe is admirable. AFTER bewailing the ruin of ancient liberty, the poet confiders the influence it has retained, or still retains among the moderns; and here the free republics of Italy naturally engage his attention-Florence, indeed, only to be lamented on the account of lofing its liberty under those patrons of letters, the Medicean family; the jealous Pifa, juftly fo called in respect to its long impatience and regret under the fame yoke; and the fmall Marino, which, however unrespectable with regard to power or extent of territory, has, at least, this distinction to boaft, that it has preferved its liberty longer than any other ftate, ancient or modern, having, without any revolution, retained its prefent mode of government near 1400 years. Moreover, the patron faint who founded it, and from whom it takes its name, deferves this poetical record, as he is, perhaps, the only faint that ever contributed to the establishment of freedom. Nor e'er her former pride relate, To fad Liguria's bleeding state. In |