Yet he was kind, or if fevere in aught, And e'en the ftory ran that he could gage: In arguing too the parfon own'd his skill, While words of learned length and thund'ring Amaz'd the gazing rusticks rang❜d around, The description of the Village Alehoufe, contains domeftick minutiæ, of a kind, which must neceffarily have pleased in the original, but which the hand of a master alone, could have made to please in the copy. That learned and judicious Critick, Dr. Warton, in his Effay on the Writings and Genius of Pope, justly observes, that The use, the force, and the excellence of language, confifts in raifing clear, com• plete, • plete, and circumftantial images, and in turning readers into fpectators.' This theory he exemplifies, by quoting two paffages from his author, in which, he fays, that every epithet paints its object, and paints it distinctly.' The fame may be faid with equal justice of the following: Near yonder thorn, that lifts its head on high, eye; Low lies that house, where nut-brown draughts infpir'd, Where grey-beard mirth, and smiling toil retir'd; Where village ftatesmen talk'd with looks And news much older than their ale went round. The parlour fplendors of that festive place; The cheft contriv'd a double debt to pay, The The hearth, except when winter chill'd the With afpen boughs, and flowers and fennel gay, This fine poetical inventory of the furniture, is fully equalled by the character of the guests, and the detail of their amufements. The negative mode of expreffion, Thither no more, &c.' by fixing the mind on the past, adds a kind of pleasing regretful pathos : Vain tranfitory fplendors! could not all No more the farmer's news, the barber's tale, This is not poetical fiction, but historical truth. We have here no imaginary Arcadia, but the real country; no poetical fwains, but the men who actually drive the plough, or wield the fcythe, the fickle, the hammer, or the hedging bill. But though But though nothing is invented, fomething is fuppreffed. The ruftick's hour of relaxation is too rarely fo innocent; it is too often contaminated with extravagance, anger, and profanity: defcribing vice and folly, however, will not prevent their exifting; and it is agreeable to forget for a moment, the reality of their existence. The foregoing defcription not unnaturally introduces the following reflec tions: Yes! let the rich deride, the proud disdain, Spontaneous Spontaneous joys, where nature has its play, But the long pomp, the midnight masquerade, The fentiment here is better than the expreffion. The Poet is probably right in his fuppofition, that the pleasures of the rich are less genuine and lively than those of the poor; but his language is far from being fimple or perfpicuous. That intention and parade raife expectations which will be mostly disappointed; that the joys which are unanticipated, and unconstrained, or independent of the will of others, are the best; were undoubtedly the axioms intended to be conveyed in these lines, Spontaneous joys, &c.' By Spontaneous joys, we must understand, joys which without |