MY LORD,
It is an observation, no doubt, familiar
to your Lordship, that Genius is the offspring of
Reason and Imagination properly moderated, and co-operating
with united influence to promote the discovery, or
the illustration of truth. Though it is certain
that a separate province is assigned to each of these
faculties, yet it often becomes a matter of the greatest
difficulty to prevent them from making mutual encroachments,
and from leading to extremes which are the more dangerous,
because they are brought on by an imperceptible progression.
Reason in every mind is an uniform power,
and its appearance is regular, and invariably permanent.
When this Faculty therefore predominates in the sphere
of composition, sentiments will follow each other
in connected succession, the arguments employed to
prove any point will be just and forcible; the stability
of a work will be principally considered, and little
regard will be payed to its exterior ornament.
Such a work however, though it may be valued by a few
for its intrinsic excellence, yet can never be productive
of general improvement, as attention can only be fixed
by entertainment, and entertainment is incompatible
with unvaried uniformity.
On the contrary, when Imagination
is permitted to bestow the graces of ornament indiscriminately,
we either find in the general that sentiments are
superficial, and thinly scattered through a work, or
we are obliged to search for them beneath a load of
superfluous colouring. Such, my Lord, is the
appearance of the superior Faculties of the mind when
they are disunited from each other, or when either
of them seems to be remarkably predominant.
Your Lordship is too well acquainted
with this subject not to have observed, that in composition,
as in common life, extremes, however pernicious, are
not always so distant from each other, as upon superficial
inspection we may be apt to conclude. Thus in
the latter, an obstinate adherence to particular opinions
is contracted by observing the consequences of volatility;
indifference ariseth from despising the softer feelings
of tenderness; pride takes its origin from the disdain
of compliance; and the first step to avarice is the
desire of avoiding profusion. Inconveniencies
similar to these are the consequences of temerity
in canvassing the subjects of speculation. The
mind of an Author receives an early bias from prepossession,
and the dislike which he conceives to a particular
fault precipitates him at once to the opposite extreme.
For this reason perhaps it is, that young authors who
possess some degree of Genius, affect on all occasions
a florid manner, and clothe their sentiments in
the dress of imagery. To them nothing appears
so disgusting as dry and lifeless uniformity; and
instead of pursuing a middle course betwixt the extremes
of profusion and sterility, they are only solicitous
to shun that error of which Prejudice hath shown the
most distorted resemblance. It is indeed but
seldom, that Nature adjusts the intellectual balance
so accurately as not to throw an unequal weight
into either of the scales. Such likewise is the
situation of man, that in the first stage of life the
predominant Faculty engrosseth his attention,
as the predominant Passion influenceth his actions.
Instead therefore of strengthening the weaker power
by assisting its exertions, and by supplying its defects,
he is adding force to that which was originally too
strong; and the same reflection which discovers his
error, shows him likewise the difficulty of correcting
it. Even in those minds, in which the distribution
was primarily equal, education, habit, or some early
bias is ready to break that perfect poise which
is necessary to constitute consummate excellence.
From this account of the different
manners, in which the faculties of the mind exert
themselves in the sphere of competition, your Lordship
will immediately observe, that the Poet who attempts
to combine distant ideas, to catch remote allusions,
to form vivid and agreeable pictures; is more apt
from the very nature of his profession to set up a
false standard of excellence, than the
cool and dispassionate Philosopher who proceeds deliberately
from position to argument, and who employs Imagination
only as the Handmaid of a superior faculty. Having
gone thus far, like persons who have got into a track
from which they cannot recede, we may venture to proceed
a step farther; and affirm that the Lyric Poet
is exposed to this hazard more nearly than any other,
and that to prevent him from falling into the extreme
we have mentioned, will require the exercise of the
closest attention.
That I may illustrate this observation
as fully as the nature of the subject will permit,
it will be expedient to enquire into the end which
Lyric Poetry proposeth to obtain, and to examine the
original standards from which the rules of this art
are deduced.
Aristotle, who has treated of poetry
at great length, assigns two causes of its origin, Imitation
and Harmony; both of which are natural to the human
mind. By Imitation he understands, “whatever
employs means to represent any subject in a natural
manner, whether it hath a real or imaginary existence.”
The desire of imitating is originally stamped on the
mind, and is a source of perpetual pleasure. “Thus”
(says the great Critic) “though the figures
of wild beasts, or of dead men, cannot be viewed as
they naturally are without horror and reluctance; yet
the Imitation of these in painting is highly agreeable,
and our pleasure is augmented in proportion to that
degree of resemblance which we conceive to subsist
betwixt the Original and the Copy.” By
Harmony he understands not the numbers or measures
of poetry only, but that music of language, which
when it is justly adapted to variety of sentiment or
description, contributes most effectually to unite
the pleasing with the instructive. This indeed
seems to be the opinion of all the Ancients who have
written on this subject. Thus Plato says expressly,
that those Authors who employ numbers and images without
music have no other merit than that of throwing prose
into measure.
You will no doubt be of opinion, my
Lord, upon reflecting on this subject, that Poetry
was originally of an earlier date than Philosophy,
and that its different species were brought to a certain
pitch of perfection before that Science had been cultivated
in an equal degree. Experience informs us on
every occasion, that Imagination shoots forward to
its full growth, and even becomes wild and luxuriant,
when the reasoning Faculty is only beginning to open,
and is wholly unfit to connect the series of accurate
deduction. The information of the senses (from
which Fancy generally borrows her images) always obtains
the earliest credit, and makes for that reason the
most lasting impressions. The sallies of this
irregular Faculty are likewise abrupt and instantaneous,
as they are generally the effects of a sudden impulse
which reason is not permitted to restrain. As
therefore we have already seen, that the desire of
imitating is innate to the mind (if your Lordship
will permit me to make use of an unphilosophical epithet)
and as the first inhabitants of the world were employed
in the culture of the field, and in surveying the
scenery of external Nature, it is probable that the
first rude draughts of Poetry were extemporary effusions, either
descriptive of the scenes of pastoral life, or extolling the attributes of the
Supreme Being. On this account Plato says that Poetry was originally Entheos Mimesis, or an inspired imitation of
those objects which produced either pleasure or admiration.
To paint those objects which produced pleasure was
the business of the pastoral, and to display those
which raise admiration was the task consigned to the
Lyric Poet. To excite this passion, no
method was so effectual as that of celebrating the
perfections of the Powers who were supposed to preside
over Nature. The Ode therefore in its first formation
was a song in honour of these Powers, either sung
at solemn festivals or after the days of Amphion who
was the inventor of the Lyre, accompanied with the
musick of that instrument. Thus Horace tells us,
Musa dedit fidibus Divos, puerosque
Divorum,
The Muse to nobler subjects tun’d
her lyre,
Gods, and the sons of Gods her song inspire.
FRANCIS.
In this infancy of the arts, when
it was the business of the Muse, as the same Poet
informs us,
Publica privatis secernere, sacra prophanis;
Concubitu prohibere vago, dare jura maritis,
Oppida moliri, leges includere ligno.
Poetic Wisdom mark’d with happy
mean,
Public and private, sacred and profane,
The wandering joys of lawless love supprest,
With equal rites the wedded couple blest,
Plann’d future towns, and instituted
laws, &c. FRANCIS.
your Lordship will immediately conclude
that the species of Poetry which was first cultivated
(especially when its end was to excite admiration)
must for that reason have been the loosest and
the most undetermined. There are indeed
particular circumstances, by the concurrence of which
one branch of an Art may be rendered perfect, when
it is first introduced; and these circumstances were
favourable to the Authors of the Eclogue. But
whatever some readers may think, your Lordship will
not look upon it as a paradox, to affirm that the same
causes which produced this advantage to pastoral poetry,
contributed in an equal degree to make the first Lyric
Poems the most vague, uncertain, and disproportioncd
standards.
In general it may be observed, that
the difficulty of establishing rules is always augmented
in proportion to the variety of objects which an Art
includes. Pastoral Poetry is defined by an ingenious
Author, to be an imitation of what may be supposed
to pass among Shepherds. This was accomplished
the more easily by the first performers in this art,
because they were themselves employed in the occupation
which they describe, and the subjects which fell within
their sphere must have been confined to a very narrow
circle. They contented themfelves with painting
in the simplest language the external beauties of nature,
and with conveying an image of that age in which men
generally lived on the footing of equality, and followed
the dictates of an understanding uncultivated by Art.
In succeeding ages, when manners became more polished,
and the refinements of luxury were substituted in place
of the simplicity of Nature, men were still fond of
retaining an idea of this happy period (which perhaps
originally existed in its full extent, only in the
imagination of Poets) and the character of a perfect
pastoral was justly drawen from the writings of those
Authors who first attempted to excel in it.
Though we must acknowledge, that the
poetic representations of a golden age are
chimerical, and that descriptions of this kind were
not always measured by the standard of truth; yet
it must be allowed at the same time, that at a period
when Manners were uniform and natural, the Eclogue,
whose principal excellence lies in exhibiting simple
and lively pictures of common objects and common characters,
was brought at once to a state of greater perfection
by the persons who introduced it, than it could have
arrived at in a more improved and enlightned aera.
You will observe, my Lord, that these
circumstances were all of them unfavourable to Lyric
Poetry. The Poet in this branch of his Art proposed
as his principal aim to excite Admiration, and his
mind without the assistance of critical skill was
left to the unequal task of presenting succeeding
ages with the rudiments of Science. He was at
liberty indeed to range through the ideal world, and
to collect images from every quarter; but in this
research he proceeded without a guide, and his imagination
like a fiery courser with loose reins was left to
pursue that path into which it deviated by accident,
or was enticed by temptation. In short, Pastoral
Poetry takes in only a few objects, and is characterized
by that simplicity, tenderness, and delicacy which
were happily and easily united in the work of an ancient
Shepherd. He had little use for the rules of
criticism, because he was not much exposed to the
danger of infringing them. The Lyric Poet on the
other hand took a more diversified and extensive range,
and his imagination required a strong and steady rein
to correct its vehemence, and restrain its rapidity.
Though therefore we can conceive without difficulty,
that the Shepherd in his poetic effusions might
contemplate only the external objects which
were presented to him, yet we cannot so readily believe
that the mind in framing a Theogony, or in assigning
distinct provinces to the Powers who were supposed
to preside over Nature, could in its first Essays
proceed with so calm and deliberate a pace through
the fields of invention, as that its work should be
the perfect pattern of just and corrected composition.
From these observations laid together,
your Lordship will judge of the state of Lyric Poetry,
when it was first introduced, and will perhaps be
inclined to assent to a part of the proposition laid
down in the beginning, “that as Poets in general
are more apt to set up a false standard of excellence
than Philosophers are, so the Lyric Poet was exposed
to this danger more immediately than any other member
of the same profession.” Whether or not
the preceding Theory can be justly applied to the
works of the first Lyric Poets, and how far the Ode
continued to be characterised by it in the more improved
state of ancient Learning, are questions which can
only be answered by taking a short view of both.
It is indeed, my Lord, much to be
regretted, that we have no certain guide to
lead us through that labyrinth in which we grope
for the discovery of Truth, and are so often entangled
in the maze of Error when we attempt to explain
the origin of Science, or to trace the manners of
remote antiquity. I should be at a loss to enter
upon this perplexed and intricate subject, if I did
not know, that History has already familiarized to
your Lordship the principal objects which occur in
this research, and that it is the effect of extensive
knowledge and superior penetration to invigorate the
effort of Diffidence, and to repress the surmises
of undistinguishing Censure.
The Inhabitants of Greece who make
so eminent a figure in the records of Science, as
well as in the History of the progression of Empire,
were originally a savage and lawless people, who lived
in a state of war with one another, and possessed
a desolate country, from which they expected to be
driven by the invasion of a foreign enemy.
Even after they had begun to emerge from this state
of absolute barbarity, and had built a kind of cities
to restrain the encroachments of the neighbouring
nations, the inland country continued to be laid waste
by the depredations of robbers, and the maritime towns
were exposed to the incursions of pirates.
Ingenious as this people naturally were, the terror
and suspence in which they lived for a considerable
time, kept them unacquainted with the Arts and Sciences
which were flourishing in other countries. When
therefore a Genius capable of civilizing them started
up, it is no wonder that they held him in the highest
estimation, and concluded that he was either descended
from, or inspired by some of those Divinities whose
praises he was employed in rehearsing.
Such was the situation of Greece,
when Linus, Orpheus, and Museus, the first Poets whose
names have reached posterity, made their appearance
on the theatre of life. These writers undertook
the difficult task of reforming their countrymen,
and of laying down a theological and philosophical
system. We are informed by Diogenes
Laertius, that Linus, the Father of Grecian Poetry,
was the son of Mercury and the Muse Urania, and that
he sung of the Generation of the world, of the course
of the sun and moon, of the origin of animals, and
of the principles of vegetation. He taught,
says the same Author, that all things were formed
at one time, and that they were jumbled together in
a Chaos, till the operation of a Mind introduced regularity.
After all, however, we must acknowledge,
that so complex, so diversified, and so ingenious
a system as the Greek Theology, was too much for an
uninstructed Genius, however exuberant, to have
conceived in its full extent. Accordingly we
are told, that both Orpheus and Museus travelled into
AEgypt, and infused the traditionary learning of a
cultivated people into the minds of their own illiterate
countrymen. To do this the more effectually,
they composed Hymns, or short sonnets, in which their
meaning was couched under the veil of beautiful allegory,
that their lessons might at once arrest the imagination,
and be impressed upon the Memory. This, my
Lord, we are informed by the great Critic, was the
first dress in which Poetry made its appearance.
Of Orpheus we know little more with
certainty, than that the subjects of his poems were
the formation of the world, the offspring of Saturn,
the birth of the Giants, and the origin of man.
These were favourite topics among the first Poets,
and the discussion of them tended at once to enlarge
the imagination, and to give the reasoning faculty
a proper degree of exercise. This Poet however,
though he obtained the highest honours from his contemporaries,
yet seems to have managed his subjects in so loose
a manner, that succeeding Writers will not allow him
to have been a Philosopher. At present we
are not sufficiently qualified to determine his character,
as most of the pieces which pass under his name are
ascribed to one Onomacritus, an Athenian who flourished
about the time of Pisistratus. That the writings
of Orpheus were highly and extensively useful, is
a truth confirmed by the most convincing evidence.
The extraordinary effects which his Poetry and Music
are said to have produced, however absurd and incredible
in themselves, are yet unquestioned proofs that he
was considered as a superior Genius, and that his
countrymen thought themselves highly indebted to him.
Horace gives an excellent account of this matter in
very few words.
Sylvestres homines, Sacer, Interpresque
Deorum
Caedibus, & victu foedo deterruit Orpheus,
Dictus ob hoc lenire tigres, rabidosque
leonés.
The wood-born race of men when Orpheus
tam’d,
From acorns, and from mutual blood reclaim’d.
The Priest divine was fabled to assuage
The tiger’s fierceness, and the
lion’s rage. FRANCIS.
Museus, the Pupil of Orpheus, is as
little known to posterity as his Master. His
only genuine production which has reached the present
times is an Ode to Ceres, a piece indeed full of exuberance
and variety. The Ancients in general seem
to have entertained a very high opinion of his Genius
and writings, as he is said to have been the first
person who composed a regular Theogony, and is likewise
celebrated as the inventor of the Sphere.
His principle was that all things would finally resolve
into the same materials of which they were originally
compounded. Virgil assigns him a place of
distinguishied eminence in the plains of Elysium.
sic est affata Sibylla.
Musaeum ante omnes, medium nam
plurima turba
Hunc habet, atque humeris extantem
suspicit altis.
The Sibyl thus address’d
Musaeus, rais’d o’er all the
circling throng.
It is generally allowed that Amphion,
who was a native of Baeotia, brought music into Greece
from Lydia, and invented that instrument (the Lyre)
from which Lyric Poetry takes its name. Before
his time they had no regular knowledge of this divine
art, though we must believe that they were acquainted
with it in some measure, as dancing is an art in which
we are informed that the earliest Poets were considerable
proficients.
Such, my Lord, was the character of
the first Lyric Poets, and such were the subjects
upon which they exercised invention. We have seen,
in the course of this short detail, that these Authors
attempted to civilize a barbarous people, whose imagination
it was necessary to seize by every possible expedient;
and upon whom chastised composition would have probably
lost its effect, as its beauties are not perceptible
to the rude and illiterate. That they employed
this method principally to instruct their countrymen
is more probable, when we remember that the rudiments
of learning were brought from AEgypt, a country in
which Fable and Allegory remarkably predominated.
By conversing with this people, it is natural to suppose
that men of impetuous imaginations would imbibe their
manner, and would adopt that species of composition
as the most proper, which was at the same time agreeable
to their own inclination, and authorised as expedient
by the example of others.
From the whole, my Lord, we may conclude
with probability, that the Greek Hymn was originally
a loose allegorical Poem, in which Imagination was
permitted to take its full career, and sentiment was
rendered at once obscure and agreeable, by being screened
behind a veil of the richest poetic imagery.
The loose fragments of these early
writers which have come down to our times, render
this truth as conspicuous as the nature of the subject
will permit. A Theogony, or an account of the
procession of fabulous Deities, was a theme on which
Imagination might display her inventive power in its
fullest extent. Accordingly Hesiod introduces
his work with recounting the genealogy of the Muses,
to whom he assigns “an apartment and attendants,
near the summit of snowy Olympus.” These
Ladies, he tells us, “came to pay him a visit,
and complimented him with a scepter and a branch of
laurel, when he was feeding his flock on the mountain
of Helicon.” Some tale of this kind
it was usual with the Poets to invent, that the vulgar
in those ages of fiction and ignorance might consider
their persons as sacred, and that the offspring
of their imaginations might be regarded as the
children of Truth.
From the same licentious use of Allegory
and Metaphor sprung the Fables of the wars of the
Giants, of the birth and education of Jupiter, of the
dethroning of Saturn, and of the provinces assigned
by the Supreme to the Inferior Deities; all of which
are subjects said to have been particularly treated
by Orpheus. The love of Fable became indeed
so remarkably prevalent in the earliest ages, that
it is now impossible in many instances to distinguish
real from apparent truth in the History of these times,
and to discriminate the persons who were useful members
of society, from those who exist only in the works
of a Poet, whose aim was professedly to excite Admiration.
Thus every event of importance was disfigured by the
colouring of poetic narration, and by ascribing to
one man the separate actions which perhaps were performed
by several persons of one name, we are now wholly
unable to disentangle truth from a perplexed and complicated
detail of real and fictitious incidents.
It appears likewise from these shreds
of antiquity, that the subjects of the Hymn were not
sufficiently limited, as we sometimes find one of them
addressed to several Deities, whose different functions
recurring constantly to the mind must have occasioned
unavoidable obscurity. The Poet by this means
was led into numberless digressions, in which the
remote points of connection will be imperceptible to
the reader, who cannot place himself in some situation
similar to that of the Writer, and attend particularly
to the character and manners of the period at which
he wrote.
Your Lordship, without the testimony
of experience, would hardly believe that a species
of composition which derived its origin from, and owed
its peculiarities to the circumstances we have mentioned,
could have been considered in an happier aera
as a pattern worthy the imitation of cultivated genius,
and the perusal of a polished and civilized people.
One is indeed ready to conclude, at the first view,
that a mode of writing which was assumed for a particular
purpose, and was adopted to the manners of an illiterate
age, might at least have undergone considerable alterations
in succeeding periods, and might have received improvements
proportioned to those which are made in other branches
of the same art. But the fact is, that while
the other branches of poetry have been gradually modelled
by the rules of criticism, the Ode hath only been
changed in a few external circumstances, and the enthusiasm,
obscurity and exuberance, which characterised it when
first introduced, continue to be ranked among its
capital and discriminating excellencies.
To account for this phenomenon, my
Lord, I need only remind your Lordship of a truth
which reflexion has, no doubt, frequently suggested; that
the rules of criticism are originally drawen, not from
the speculative idea of perfection in an art, but from
the work of that Artist to whom either merit or accident
hath appropriated the most established character.
From this position it obviously follows, that such
an art must arrive at once to its highest perfection,
as the attempts of succeeding performers are estimated
not by their own intrinsic value or demerit,
but by their conformity to a standard which is previously
set before them. It hath happened fortunately
for the republic of letters, that the two higher species
of poetry are exempted from the bad consequences which
might have followed an exact observation of this rule.
An early and perfect standard was settled to regulate
the Épopée, and the Drama was susceptible of gradual
improvement, as Luxury augmented the subjects,
and decorated the machinery of the theatre. We
have already seen that Lyric Poetry was not introduced
with the advantages of the former, and reflection must
convince us, that it is not calculated to gain the
slow and imperceptible accessions of the latter.
We may observe however in the general, that as the
opinions of the bulk of mankind in speculative matters
are commonly the result of accident rather than the
consequences of reflection, so it becomes extremely
difficult, if not impossible, in some instances to
point out a defect in an established model without
incurring the censure of the multitude. Such,
my Lord, is the nature of man, and so trifling and
capricious are the circumstances upon which his sentiments
depend.
Accustomed as your Lordship has been
to survey the improved manners of an enlightned age,
you will contemplate with pleasure an happier aera
in the progression of Science, when the Ode from being
confined wholly to fictitious Theology, was transposed
to the circle of Elegance and the Graces. Such
is its appearance in the writings ot Anacreon, of Horace,
and in the two fragments of Sappho.
Anacreon was nearly contemporary with
that Onomacritus, whom we have mentioned as the Author
of those poems which are ascribed to Orpheus.
He flourished between the 60th and the 70th Olympiad.
His pieces are the offspring of genius and indolence.
His subjects are perfectly suited to his character.
The devices which he would have to be carved upon a
silver cup are extremely ingenious.
Dios gonon
Bakchon Euion hemin.
Mustin amate Kuprin
Humenaiois krotousan.
Kai Erotas apoplous
Kai charitas gelosas, &c.
The race
of Jove,
Bacchus whose happy smiles approve;
The Cyprian Queen, whose gentle hand
Is quick to tye the nuptial band;
The sporting Loves unarm’d appear,
The Graces loose and laughing near.
Sweetness and natural elegance characterise
the writings of this Poet, as much as carelessness
and ease distinguished his manners. In some of
his pieces there is exuberance and even wildness of
imagination, as in that particularly which is addressed
to a young girl, where he wishes alternately to be
transformed into a mirror, a coat, a stream, a bracelet,
and a pair of shoes, for the different purposes which
he recites. This is meer sport and wantonness,
and the Poet would probably have excused himself for
it, by alledging that he took no greater liberties
in his own sphere than his predecessors of the same
profession had done in another. His indolence
and love of ease is often painted with great simplicity
and elegance, and his writings abound with those
beautiful and unexpected turns which are characteristic
of every species of the Ode.
Though we must allow Anacreon to have
been an original Genius, yet it is probable, as I
formerly observed, that he took Lyric Poetry as he
found it; and without attempting to correct imperfections,
of which he might have been sensible, made on the
contrary the same use of this which a man of address
will do of the foibles of his neighbour, by employing
them to promote his own particular purposes. We
may conclude indeed from the character of this Poet,
that he was not fitted to strike out new lights in
the field of Science, or to make considerable deviations
from the practice of his Predecessors. He was,
no doubt, of opinion likewise, that his manner was
authorised in some measure by the example of the Mitylenian
Poetess, whose pieces are celebrated for softness and
delicacy, and who possessed above all others the
art of selecting the happiest circumstances which
she placed likewise in the most striking points of
view. Longinus produceth, as a proof of this,
her fine Ode inscribed to a favourite attendant, in
which the progression of that tumultuous emotion,
which deprived her of her senses, is described with
peculiar elegance and sensibility.
We are at a loss to judge of the character
of Alcaeus, the countryman and rival of Sappho, because
scarce any fragment of his writings has reached the
present times. He is celebrated by the Ancients
as a spirited Author, whose poems abounded with examples
of the sublime and vehement. Thus Horace says,
when comparing him to Sappho, that he sung so forcibly
of wars, disasters, and shipwrecks, that the Ghosts
stood still to hear him in silent astonishment.
The same Poet informs us, that he likewise sung of
Bacchus, Venus, the Muses, and Cupid. From
these sketches of his character we may conclude that
his pieces were distinguished by those marks of rapid
and uncontrolled imagination, which we have found
to characterise the works of the first Lyric Poets.
Your Lordship needs not be told, that
the Roman Poet who had the advantage of improving
upon so many originals, takes in a greater variety
of subjects than any of his predecessors, and runs
into more diffuse and diversified measure. I
have said, my Lord, that his subjects are more diversified,
because in the character of a Lyric Poet we must consider
him as a professed imitator both of Anacreon and of
Pindar. In the former point of view he falls
under our immediate cognisance; in the latter we shall
take a view of him afterwards, when we come to examine
the works of that great Original, whose example he
follows.
The Reader will observe, that in the
shorter Odes of Horace there is commonly one leading
thought, which is finely enlivened with the graces
of description. A constant Unity of sentiment
is therefore preserved in each of them, and the abrupt
starts and sallies of passion are so artfully interwoven
with the principal subject, that upon a review of
the whole piece, we find it to be a perfect imitation
of Nature. This Poet (whose judgment appears
to have been equal to his imagination) is particularly
careful to observe propriety in his most irregular
excursions, and the vivacity of his passion is justified
by the circumstances in which he is supposed to be
placed. The diction of these poems is likewise
adapted with great accuracy to the sentiment, as it
is generally concise, forcible, and expressive.
Brevity of language ought indeed particularly to characterise
this species of the Ode, in which the Poet writes
from immediate feeling, and is intensely animated by
his subject. Delicacy is likewise indispensibly
requisite, because the reader is apt to be disgusted
with the least appearance of constraint or harshness
in a poem, whose principal excellence lies in the happy
and elegant turn of a pointed reflection. In
short, little sallies and picturesque epithets have
a fine effect in pieces of this kind, as by the former
the passions are forcibly inflamed, and by the latter
their effects are feelingly exposed.
Of all these delicate beauties of
composition, the Odes of Horace abound with pregnant
and striking examples. Sometimes he discovers
the strength of his passion, when he is endeavouring
to forget it, by a sudden and lively turn which is
wholly unexpected. Thus he tells Lydia,
Non si me satîs audias, Speres perpetuum
dulcia barbare Laedentem oscula, quae Venus Quinta
parte sui nectaris imbuit.
Sometimes his pictures are heightned
with beautiful imagery, and he seizeth the imagination
before he appeals to reason. Thus, when he is
advising his friend not to mourn any longer for a man
who was dead, instead of proposing the subject immediately
he says,
Non semper imbres nubibus hispidos
Manant in agros, &c. Not always snow,
and hail, and rain Defend, and beat the fruitful
plain. CREECH.
On other occasions he breaks abruptly
into a short and spirited transition.
Auditis? an me ludit amabilis Insania?
audire et videor pios Errare per lucos, amoenae
Quos et aquae subeunt et aurae.
Dos’t hear? or sporting in my brain,
What wildly-sweet deliriums reign!
Lo! mid Elysium’s balmy groves,
Each happy shade transported roves!
I see the living scene display’d,
Where rills and breathing gales sigh murmuring
thro’ the shade.
On some subjects he is led imperceptibly
into a soft melancholy, which peculiar elegance of
expression renders extremely agreeable in the end
of this poem. There is a fine stroke of this kind
in his Ode to Septimus, with whom he was going
to fight against the Cantabrians. He figures
out a poetical recess for his old age, and then says,
Ille te mecum locus, et beatae
Postulant arces, ibi tu calentem
Debita sparges lachryma favillam
Vatis
amici.
That happy place, that sweet retreat.
The charming hills that round it rise,
Your latest hours, and mine await;
And when your Poet Horace dyes;
There the deep sigh thy poet-friend shall
mourn,
And pious tears bedew his glowing urn.
FRANCIS.
Upon the whole, my Lord, you will
perhaps be of opinion, that though the subjects of
this second species of the Ode are wholly different
from these of the first; yet the same variety of images,
boldness of transition, figured diction, and rich
colouring which characterised this branch of poetry
on its original introduction, continue to be uniformly
and invariably remarkable in the works of succeeding
performers. Reflection indeed will induce us
to acknowledge, that in this branch of Lyric Poetry
the Author may be allowed to take greater liberties
than we could permit him to do in that which has formerly
been mentioned. It is the natural effect of any
passion by which the mind is agitated, to break out
into short and abrupt sallies which are expressive
of its impetuosity, and of an imagination heated,
and starting in the tumult of thought from one object
to another. To follow therefore the workings of
the mind in such a situation and to paint them happily,
is in other words to copy Nature. But your Lordship
will observe, that the transitions of the Poet who
breaks from his subject to exhibit an historical detail
whose connection with it is remote, or who is solicitous
to display the fertility of a rich imagination at the
expence of perspicuity, when it is not supposed that
his passions are inflamed: you will observe,
my Lord, that his digressions are by no means so excusable
as those of the other, because obscurity in the latter
may be an excellence, whereas in the former it is
always a blemish.
It is only necessary to observe farther
on this head, that the difference of the subjects
treated by Anacreon and Horace, from those of Orpheus,
Museus, &c. is owing to the different characters of
the ages in which they lived. We could not indeed
have expected to meet with any thing very serious,
at any period, from so indolent and careless a writer
as Anacreon. But Luxury even in his time had made
considerable progress in the world. The principles
of Theology were sufficiently well established.
Civil polity had succeeded to a state of confusion,
and men were become fond of ease and affluence, of
wine and women. Anacreon lived at the court of
a voluptuous Monarch, and had nothing to divert
his mind from the pursuit of happiness in his own way.
His Odes therefore are of that kind, in which the
gentler Graces peculiarly predominate. Sappho
and Horace were employed in the same manner. The
Lady had a Gallant, of whom it appears that she was
extremely fond, and the Roman Poet lived in a polite
court, was patronized by a man of distinguished eminence,
and was left at full liberty to pursue that course
of life to which he was most powerfully prompted by
inclination.
The poetic vein in these Writers takes
that turn, which a stranger must have expected upon
hearing their characters. Their pieces are gay,
entertaining, loose, elegant, and ornamented with a
rich profusion of the graces of description.
The reader of sensibility will receive the highest
pleasure from perusing their works, in which the internal
movements of the mind warmed by imagination, or agitated
by passion, are exposed in the happiest and most agreeable
attitudes. This, perhaps, is the principal excellence
of the looser branches of poetic composition.
The mind of the Poet in these pieces is supposed to
be intensely kindled by his subject. His Fancy
assumes the rein, and the operation of reason is for
a moment suspended. He follows the impulse of
enthusiasm, and throws off those simple but lively
strokes of Nature and Passion, which can only be felt,
and are beyond imitation.
Ut
sibi quivis
Speret idem, sudet multum, frustraque
laboret
Ausus idem!
All may hope to imitate with ease:
Yet while they drive the same success to gain,
Shall find their labour and their hopes are vain.
FRANCIS.
The unequal measures which are used
in these shorter Odes, are likewise adapted with great
propriety to the subjects of which they treat.
Horace says, that this inequality of numbers was originally
fixed upon as expressive of the complaints of a lover;
but he adds, that they became quickly expressive likewise
of his exultation.
Versibus impariter junctis Querimonia
primum
Post etiam inclusa est voti sententia
compos.
Unequal measures first were taught to
flow,
Sadly expressive of the Lover’s
woe.
These looser and shorter measures
distinguish this branch of the Ode from the Hymn which
was composed in heroic measure, and from the Pindaric
Ode (as it is commonly called) to which the dithyrambique
or more diversified stanza was particularly appropriated.
Of the shorter Ode therefore it may be said with propriety,
Son stile impetueux souvent
marche au hazarde
Chez un beau disordre est
un effect de l’art.
Thus, my Lord, we have taken a view
of the Lyric poetry of the Ancients, as it appeared
originally in the works of the earliest Poets, and
as it was afterwards employed to enliven a train of
more elegant and delicate sentiment. I have attempted,
in the course of this enquiry, to follow the lights
which Antiquity throws on this subject as closely as
possible, to explain facts by placing them in connection,
and to illustrate reasoning by example.
Your Lordship’s acquaintance
with the principles of civil Government, and your
experience of the effects of education have enabled
you to observe the character, which the Manners
of an age stamp upon the productions of the
Authors who live in it. Experience will convince
us, that these general revolutions resemble more nearly
than we are apt to imagine at first view, the circumstances
of an Individual at the different periods of life.
In one age he is captivated by the beauties of description,
at another he is fond of the deductions of Philosophy;
his opinions vary with his years, and his actions,
as directed by these, are proportionably diversified.
In all these circumstances however, the original bias
which he received from Nature remains unalterable,
and the peculiarity of his character appears conspicuous,
notwithstanding the accidental diversity of fluctuating
sentiments. It is to be expected in such a situation,
that changes similar to these will usually take place
in arts which are susceptible of perpetual mutation;
and of this a particular instance is exhibited in
the preceding detail. Another branch of this
subject remains to be considered, and on this I shall
give your Lordship the trouble of perusing a few remarks
in a subsequent letter. Permit me only to observe,
from what hath already been advanced, that the ingredients
of Genius are often bestowed by Nature, when the polish
of Art is wanted to mould the original materials into
elegant proportion. He who possesseth the former
in the highest degree may be a Shakespear or an AEschylus;
but both were united in forming the more perfect characters
of Demosthenes and Homer.