fubject deferves attention; how it happens, that the defcriptions of the poet, and the imitations of the painter, feem to communicate more delight than the things they defcribe or imitate,

In eftimating the refpective merits of nature and of art, it will readily be admitted, that the preference, in every fingle object, is due to the former. Take the simpleft bloffom that blows, obferve its tints or its ftructure, and you will own them unrivalled. What pencil, how animated foever, can equal the glories of the sky at fun-fet? or, can the representations of moon-light, even by Homer, Milton, and Shakespeare, be more exquifitely finished than the real fcenery of a moon-light night?

If the poet and painter are capable of yielding fuperior pleasure, in their exhibitions, to what we receive from the works of their great original, it is in the manner of grouping their objects, and by their skill in arrangement. In particular, they give uncommon delight, by attending not merely to unity of defign, but to unity, if I may be allowed the expreffion, in the feelings they would excite. In the works of Nature, unless fhe has been orna

mented

mented and reformed by the tafte of an ingenious improver, intentions of this fort are very feldom apparent. Objects that are gay, melancholy, folemn, tranquil, impetuous, and fantaftic, are thrown together, without any regard to the influences of arrangement, or to the confiftency of their effects on the mind. The elegant artist, on the contrary, though his works be adorned with unbounded variety, fuggefts only those objects that excite fimilar or kindred emotions, and excludes every thing of an oppofite, or even of a different tendency. If the scene he describes be folemn, no lively nor fantaftic image can have admiffion: but if, in a fprightly mood, he difplays fcenes of feftivity, every pensive and gloomy thought is debarred. Thus the figures he delineates have one undivided direction; they make one great and entire impreffion.

To illuftrate this remark, let us obferve the conduct of Milton in his two celebrated poems, Allegro, and Il Penferofo.

In the Allegro, meaning to excite a cheerful mood, he fuggefts a variety of objects; for variety, by giving confiderable exercise to the mind, and by not fuffering it to reft long on the fame appearance, occafions brifk and exhila- rating

rating emotions. Accordingly, the poet fhews us, at one glance, and, as it were, with a fingle dafh of his pen,

Ruffet lawns, and fallows gray,

Where the nibbling flocks do stray,
Mountains, on whofe barren breaft
The labouring clouds do often reft;
Meadows trim with daifies pied,
Shallow brooks and rivers wide.

The objects themselves are cheerful; for, be. fides having brooks, meadows, and flowers, we have the whiftling plowman, the finging milk-maid, the mower. whetting his fcythe, and the shepherd piping beneath a shade. These images, fo numerous, fo various, and fo cheerful, are animated by lively contrafts: We have the mountains oppofed to the meadows, “Shal"low brooks and rivers wide." Add to this, that the charms of the landscape are heightened by the bloom of a fmiling feafon; and that the light poured upon the whole is the delightful radiance of a fummer morning.

Right against the eaftern gate,
Where the great Sun begins his ftate,
Rob'd in flames of amber light,
The clouds in thousand liv'ries dight.

Every image is lively; every thing different is with-held; all the emotions the poet excites are of one character and complexion.

Let us now obferve the conduct of his Il Penferofo. This poem is, in every respect, an exact counterpart to the former. And, the intention of the poet being to promote a ferious and folemn mood, he removes every thing lively: "Hence vain deluding joys." He quits fociety; he chufes filence, and opportunities for deep reflection; "Some ftill removed place will fit." The objects he presents are few. In the quotation, beginning with "Ruffet lawns," there are eight leading images: in the following, of equal length, there is only one :

To behold the wandering moon,
Riding near her highest noon,

Like one that had been led aftray
Through the heav'n's wide pathless way;
And oft, as if her head she bow'd,

Stooping through a fleecy cloud.

The founds that can be, in any refpect, agreeable to him, muft correfpond with his prefent humour: Not the fong of the milk-maid, but that of the nightingale; not the whistling plowman, but the found of the curfeu. His images

fucceed

fucceed one another flowly, without any rapid or abrupt tranfitions, without any enlivening contrafts; and he will have no other light for his landscape than that of the moon: Or, if he cannot enjoy the fcene without doors, he will have no other light within than that of dying embers, or of a folitary lamp at midnight. The time, and the place he chufes for his retreat, are perfectly fuited to his employment; for he is engaged in deep meditation, and in - confidering

What worlds or what vaft regions hold
Th' immortal mind.

Every image is folemn; every thing different.is with-held Here, as before, all the emotions the poet excites are of one character and complexion. It is owing, in a great measure, to this attention in the writer, to preferve unity and confiftency of sentiment, that, notwithstanding confiderable imperfections in the language and verfification, Allegro and Il Penferofo have so many admirers.

The skill of the poet and painter, in forming their works fo as to excite kindred and united emotions, deferves the greater attention, that perfons of true taste are not fo much affected, even in contemplating the beauties of nature