Where Science, prank'd in tiffued vest, By Reason, Pride, and Fancy dreft, When the mind goes in pursuit of visionary systems, it is not far from the regions of doubt; and the greater its capacity to think abstractedly, to reason and refine, the more it will be expofed to and bewildered in uncertainty. From an enthufiaftic warmth of temper, indeed, we may for a while be encouraged to perfift in fome favourite doctrine, or to adhere to some adopted fyftem; but when that enthufiafm, which is founded on the vivacity of the paffions, gradually cools and dies away with them, the opinions it fupported drop from us, and we are thrown upon the inhofpitable fhore of doubt.-A ftrik ing ing proof of the neceffity of some moral rule of wisdom and virtue, and fome fyftem of happiness established by unerring knowledge and unlimited power. In the poet's addrefs to Humour in this ode, there is one image of fingular beauty and propriety. The ornaments in the hair of Wit are of fuch a nature, and disposed in fuch a manner, as to be perfectly fymbolical and characteristic: Me too amidst thy band admit, There, where the young-ey'd healthful (Whose jewels in his crifped hair Nothing could be more expreffive of wit, which confifts in a happy collifion of comparative parative and relative images, than this reciprocal reflection of light from the disposition of the jewels. O Humour, thou whofe name is known The author could only mean to apply this to the time when he wrote, fince other nations had produced works of great humour, as he himself acknowledges afterwards. By old Miletus, &c. By all you taught the Tufcan maids, &c. The Milefian and Tufcan romances were by no means diftinguished for humour, but as they were the models of that species of writing in which humour was afterwards employed, they are, probably for that reason only, mentioned here. M THE PASSION S. AN ODE FOR MUSIC. F the mufic, which was compofed for this ode, had equal merit with the ode itself, it must have been the most excellent performance of the kind, in which poetry and mufic have, in modern times, united. Other pieces of the fame nature have derived their greatest reputation from the perfection of the mufic that accompanied them, having in themselves little more merit than that of an ordinary ballad: but in this we have the whole foul and power of poetry-Expreffion that, even without the aid of mufic, ftrikes to the heart; and imagery of power enough to transport the attention without the forceful alliance of cor refponding responding founds! what, then, must have been the effect of thefe united ! It is very obfervable that though the measure is the fame, in which the mufical efforts of fear, anger and defpair are described, yet by the variation of the cadence, the character and operation of each is ftrongly expreffed: thus particularly of Defpair: With woeful measures wan Defpair- He must be a very unfkilful composer who could not catch the power of imitative harmony from these lines! The picture of Hope that follows this is beautiful almost beyond imitation. By the M 2 united |