refponding founds! what, then, must have been the effect of these united ! It is very obfervable that though the meafure is the fame, in which the mufical efforts of fear, anger and despair are described, yet by the variation of the cadence, the character and operation of each is ftrongly expreffed : thus particularly of despair : With woeful measures wan Despair A folemn, ftrange and mingled air, He must be a very unfkilful compofer who could not catch the power of imitative. harmony from these lines! THE picture of Hope that follows this is beautiful almoft beyond imitation. M 2 By the united united powers of imagery and harmony, that delightful being is exhibited with all the charms and graces that pleasure and fancy have appropriated to her: Relegat, qui femel percurrit ; But thou, O Hope, with eyes fo fair, And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail ! Still would her touch the ftrain prolong, And from the rocks, the woods, the vale, She call'd on Echo ftill thro' all the fong; And where her sweetest theme she chose, A foft refponfive voice was heard at every close, And Hope enchanted smil'd, and wav'd her golden hair. In In what an exalted light does the above ftanza place this great master of poetical imagery and harmony! what varied fweetness of numbers! what delicacy of judgment and expreffion! how characteristically does hope prolong her ftrain, repeat her foothing closes, call upon her affociate Echo for the fame purposes, and display every pleafing grace peculiar to her. And Hope enchanted fmil'd, and wav'd her golden hair. Legat, qui nunquam legit ; The descriptions of joy, jealousy and revenge are excellent, though not equally so, those of melancholy and chearfulness are fuperior to every thing of the kind; and, upon the whole, there may be very little hazard in afferting that this is the fineft ode in the English lan guage. AN EPISTLE TO SIR THOMAS HANMER, ON HIS EDI TION OF SHAKESPEAR'S WORKS. HIS poem was written by our author TH at the university, about the time when Sir Thomas Hanmer's pompous edition of Shakespear was printed at Oxford. If it has not fo much merit as the reft of his poems, it has ftill more than the fubject deferves. The verfification is eafy and genteel, and the allufions always poetical. The character of the poet Fletcher in particular is very justly drawn in this epiftle. DIRGE DIR GE IN CYMBELINE. ODE ON THE DEATH OF MR. THOMSON. R. COLLINS had skill to complain. Of MR that mournful melody and those tender images which are the diftinguishing excellencies of fuch pieces as bewail departed friendship, or beauty, he was an almost unequalled mafter. He knew perfectly to exhibit fuch circumstances, peculiar to the objects, as awaken the influences of pity, and while, from his own great fenfibility, he felt what he wrote, he naturally addreffed himself to the feelings of others. To read fuch lines as the following, all beautiful and tender as they are, without corresponding emotions of pity, is furely impoffible: The |